Gavin Grimmer
15 Sept 2015
While I was researching this tragic incident, I found that certain factions had called Paul's character into question suggesting that this disappearance was nothing more than a couple of other cases in past history.... a suicide.
Going through the files, I think this was based on the assumption of the plane seen flying out to sea that I have since identified as being none other than Cherokee 6 ZK-DQY on a scheduled flight heading to New Plymouth (page 20 on this site).
On page 10, I listed Paul's character references from the Search Records and they show nothing untowards about him other than being quite shy, and hence quiet sort of fellow.
A few days ago, an old friend of Paul contacted me, and after gaining his permission, I am publishing his email as it is a fitting tribute to Paul:
Hi there,
I stumbled on your site today and thought I would see whether there was anything about Paul’s accident.
I was at 4 squadron ATC with Paul from around 1978 to 1980 and was fortunate to have him as my flight sergeant. I can’t add anything to your research but I can concur with everything that has been said about his character. Paul was completely different from the other NCOs. He never took advantage of his position or bullied the cadets. He was just a down to earth sensible sort of guy. He would take the keener cadets up flying and in fact I flew with him in what I am pretty sure was WAC a couple of years prior to his crash. In the air he was exactly as advertised and I would be morally certain that any misadventure was not of his own making.
Thanks for caring. It was a real shock to us at the time.
Regards, Mike Mulholland
Page 22 WAC