Memories of air crash relived by tramper

ON THE SPOT: Rodney Winchcombe holds photographs he took at the scene of a Lockheed Electra crash on Mt Ruapehu. PHOTO/STUART MUNRO 130315WCSMRODNEY1

Being first to the scene of an aircraft accident on a mountain was quite an adventure for six young Taihape men in 1948.

Turns out quite a few people have memories of the crash on October 23 - 67 years ago.

It killed all 13 aboard and, up on the snowy slopes of the North Island's highest mountain, they were not found for nearly a week.

Rodney Winchcombe, now living in Wanganui, was 19 in 1948. He and his Taihape mates were members of the Otaihape Alpine Club. They knew through radio reports that a ski instructor had spotted the downed plane near Lake Surprise.

Six men in their late teens and early 20s set off for the site - Mr Winchcombe, Ray Christensen, Doug Wacker, Bob Auld, Noel Marshall and Stephen "Scotty" Scott. Mr Winchcombe thinks he may be the only one of them left alive now.

They took the train to the stop nearest the accident site.

"It was the old Wellington-Auckland Express. It went up nightly and it was always packed full. It left Taihape at nine o'clock sharp," Mr Winchcombe said.

The six got off in Ohakune at 11pm and set off walking up a well-defined track to Blyth Hut. They arrived at daylight, had a cup of tea and walked on.

They got to the crash site about 9am on a beautiful morning, arriving just before the main search party. "I think the search party left from Horopito. We walked all night and that probably put us ahead."

They saw where the plane had hit a ridge and then slid back down into a gully. There was a gap in the side of it, where they could see bodies.

"It wasn't a pretty sight. There was an awful smell of fuel and bodies and everything."

There were soon 20 or 30 people there to remove the bodies and take them up to a ridge, where they were carried out on stretchers. An Air Force plane dropped food and drink for the rescue party.

The young fellows then walked down to Horopito, the rescue headquarters, and were given a cup of tea and something to eat. They got back to Taihape that night. Mr Winchcombe had taken some photographs of the crash, which he sold to an Auckland newspaper.

He and his friend, Ray Christensen, went back to the crash site several times after that, and took small pieces away with them. One is still on display at Kristy's Pies in Wanganui.

Another former Taihape resident, Lawrence Ross, said the story of those young men's day was still told in his family.

"I can remember sitting around the kitchen table a number of times and hearing this discussed."

The way he heard it, Stephen "Scotty" Scott went to the police and volunteered his services. He was told he wasn't wanted but went up the mountain anyway, arriving well before the official search party.

Wanganui resident Bernard Corkery's dad, Daniel, was one of that search party. Daniel Corkery was newly married and working for the New Zealand Forest Service in the Ruapehu area in 1948. He was one of the people asked to help the police get to the site and recover bodies.

For his father, it was a dreadful experience.

"The only intact body was the baby. The police had to break into the fuselage and assemble the bodies and take them down by stretcher," Mr Corkery said.

His father was at the inquest too.

"My mother said my father had nightmares for years afterwards."

What Wanganui's Barbara Morrison (nee Anderson) remembers about the crash is a long and interesting horseback ride through the hills, with her father.

She was 18 at the time, and was housekeeping on her father's farm in the Parihauhau Valley northeast of Wanganui.

She said planes followed the coastline north and then headed inland up the Whanganui River. The Parihauhau farm was near Tauakira, one of the biggest hills on the flight path. Smoke had been spotted coming from it but it turned out the smoke came from a tree that had been set on fire by lightning.

-Film-maker Screentime is producing a documentary on the crash. Anyone with information to pass on can contact producer/director Ross Peebles at ross.peebles@screentime.co.nz