Seven New Zealand fighter pilots who died trying to save a fellow airman in World War 2 were remembered in a ceremony off the coast of Papua New Guinea at the weekend.
The remembrance ceremony was held aboard a Lyttelton-based yacht near PNG.
Yacht crewman Chris Rudge said
the ceremony was to commemorate the lives of those who died trying to save Flight Lieutenant Frank Keefe whose aircraft was hit by a shell over Simpson Harbour in Rabaul on January 15, 1945.
"With his starboard wing shattered, he was forced to bail out at 2000 feet and landed in the water surrounded on three sides by Japanese forces," Mr Rudge said.
Fifteen aircraft unsuccessfully tried to rescue him before being caught in a tropical storm.
Two of the planes collided, three crashed into the sea, one crashed in the atoll and one disappeared leaving seven pilots dead, Mr Rudge, who is writing a book about the tragedy, said.
During the ceremony pounamu stones bearing the names of each pilot were lowered into the ocean.
Pottles of water collected from the pilots' home towns were also emptied into the sea.
Flt Lt Keefe was eventually captured and died two weeks later of blood poisoning in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.
- NZPA
