Help us with the search for an historic aircraft wreck

A small group has spent the last three summers looking for a historic aircraft wreck in thick bush within Abel Tasman National Park. Help us buy scientific instruments to detect metal in the areas of bush that are overgrown and steep.

In 1928 Kiwi men Lieutenant John Moncrief and Captain George Hood attempted the first crossing of the Tasman Sea by aircraft in a Ryan Brougham. Getting close to New Zealand the signal from their beacon stopped and though there were many reports from people hearing and seeing aircraft around central NZ they were never heard from again.

In the mid 1960’s two lads out pig hunting in what is now Abel Tasman National Park stumbled across what they recognised as an aircraft wreck. The one lad who is still with us and now in his sixty’s can’t remember exactly where it is in the 2km square area (though he’s given us a few clues), but clearly remembers it as an aircraft fuselage. He lived by the airport then and had seen small aircraft disassembled.

Over the last three years a small but focused group has spent the summer time grid searching likely areas based on historical aerial photos. Now we’re ready to search various patches which are steep and thick with bush. To detect metal in the inaccessible areas a pair of instruments called magnetometers are to be used. Help us buy these!

There is every chance the aircraft wreck is the Aotearoa, the aircraft that attempted this first crossing of the Tasman – That would have made Kiwis the first people to fly across the Tasman. As it stands Kingsford-Smith holds the record for Australia – Help us as we attempt to change that bit of history!