A Baffin bomber plane being hauled ashore in December 1939 after it was in a forced landing into the sea of Cook Strait off Wellington's south coast. Photo / Herald file
A Baffin bomber plane being hauled ashore in December 1939 after it was in a forced landing into the sea of Cook Strait off Wellington's south coast. Photo / Herald file
Wartime residents of Wellington's south coast had front row seats to watch a biplane Baffin bomber's forced landing in Cook Strait after its engine failed.
The Royal New Zealand Air Force plane, flown by Pilot Officer SG White, came down about 3.5km from the Island Bay shore at 12.30pm onDecember 14, 1939.
White, of Woodbourne air base near Blenheim, was unhurt and didn't even get wet, according to a Press Association report in the Herald.
The incident happened in the early months of New Zealand's involvement in World War II. Less than three months later, three air force men were killed when, during a training flight, their Baffin crashed into the sea off a Christchurch beach.
A Royal New Zealand Air Force Blackburn Baffin bomber. Photo / Herald file
White's was one of three air force planes flying from Rongotai in Wellington across Cook Strait.
His plane's engine failed off Palmer Head, but picked up temporarily.
He turned to return to Rongotai but the motor failed at a height of about 150m, too low to enable the plane to glide to the aerodrome or the beach.
After the plane landed in the sea, a fisherman, Mr L Teo, originally from Italy, went out to help in a boat. The pilot told him he was alright. Mr Rafael Creco, in another launch, brought White ashore.
Three fishing boats towed the plane, which was nearly completely submerged, to within several hundred metres of the beach. It had tipped upside down and efforts were made to get it right side up.
This damaged the plane and in efforts to get the machine onto land the tail was torn away.
White was at the beach to watch the salvage operation, in which the main rope broke and the end of it hit him in the eye.
From Havelock North, White had previously been in Britain's Royal Air Force and had flown his own Moth plane from England to Australia.
Royal New Zealand Air Force Group Captain Leonard Isitt, later Air Vice Marshal and Chief of the Air Staff. Photo / Herald file
Air force Group Captain Leonard Isitt - later the Chief of the Air Staff and ranked Air Vice Marshal - said the flotation bags in the rear of the Baffin fuselage had kept the tail above the sea.
He said the Defence Department greatly appreciated the action of the Italian fishermen and others who helped.
