Gavin Grimmer
Earl Bloomfield Stuart - age 40
Elizabeth McGregor Stuart - age 37
David John Stuart - age 18
Alec Davidson Stuart- age 38
Rosie Stuart - age 37
David Hogg - age 20
Preservation Inlet and then back to Dunedin. It was last seen flying past Milford Sound Aerodrome from the direction of the Sunderland Falls, out towards the Sound entrance. The weather further south of there was reported as being low cloud virtually down to sea level.
Nothing of this aeroplane has ever been found.
On 29 December 1979, Milford Whaitery from Bluff (now deceased) while crayfishing at the Transit Shallows on the fishing boat “Thelda Fay”, saw an airplane that fitted the description of Cherokee Six ZK-EBU fly into the Transit River Valley in very poor visibility conditions. Transit River is just south of the entrance to Milford Sound and he thought that maybe the pilot had mistaken this for the entrance into Milford Sound.
There was another possible sighting of this aircraft outside of the area that was searched on the day it went missing:
An aircraft fitting the description of the Cherokee Six ZK-EBU was seen on the day it disappeared flying out to sea over the Moeraki River mouth, turn around about 1/4 mile out and head back up the river again.
The weather was drizzly rain and it was getting quite dark.
It was thought that the pilot had mistaken the river for the Haast River and was looking for the Haast Aerodrome.
There have been reports of sightings of wreckage of a crashed aircraft in the bush in a valley just south of that position.
Can you help with any further information?
ZK-EBU Pg 1
