Robertson Air Service

Fletcher FU-24

The aircraft took off on its 13th sowing flight of the morning and headed for the sowing area, about 2 minutes flying time away. It was observed by a farmer working some 1.5 km away from the accident site to make its usual pattern of sowing runs for that morning, that is an initial northerly run over the sowing area during which the major portion of the fertilizer load was dispensed, followed by a RH reversal turn to sow the balance of the load. On this last flight however the witness thought that the northerly run was started further north than the previous ones and the reversal turn was preceded by a steeper climb than usual. The witness then saw the plane descending sharply until it passed from his sight behind intervening terrain. This witness heard the impact. The aircraft was found wrecked by another witness who heard a plane pass right overhead his house, followed by the cessation of engine noise and then the sound of the crash. This witness and another person were able to get to the crash site in just a minute or two and found the plane upright and on its belly but wrecked. There was no fire. The pilot was found still strapped in his seat and unconscious. He had incurred serious head and facial injuries from which he died next day. A pathologist's opinion was that the injuries were fatal. Ground evidence showed that the Fletcher had struck with its right wing a power pole on the boundary of the paddock being sown while descending in a right bank, before pivoting and hitting the ground in a yaw to the right, and in a nose down attitude. Source: ASN

Fletcher FU-24

An aerial topdressing operation was being carried out from an airstrip near Otangiwai. The sowing area was on an adjacent farm property. The pilot commenced sowing over the higher ground in the area, but as the morning progressed turbulence became significant in the lee of the hills and the highly experienced pilot ( 10,898 flying hours ) decided to turn his attention to the lower part of the farm. Accordingly a sortie was carried out over the northeastern corner of the property. At 10:20 the pilot took off to make another series of sowing runs over the same area. The Fletcher did not come back from this sortie and at about 11:00 the wreckage of ZK-DUI was found. Fire had not occurred.The pilot was dead. The crash site was on a level river flat.The aircraft had dived into the ground at an angle of at least 60 degrees to the horizontal and probably near vertically. The propeller was separated from the engine and buried 1 metre in the soil. Compression damage had severed the fuselage at the middle of the cockpit and the remainder of the aircraft had rebounded and came to rest on the main wheels some 8 metres from the forward fuselage. The rear fuselage was folded in half behind the wing. No fertilizer was in the hopper and there was none in the vicinity of the wreck.The left outer wing panel was found about 100 metres from the rest of the plane. Its leading edge section was missing. Cable marks showed that the LE section had been sheared off from the main spar by a wire cable. The investigation found that the aircraft had collided in flight with a single 11,000 volt conductor, or wire, at roughly the center of the 500 metre span between two poles. The collision was at a height of about 220 feet AGL and about 600 metres from the crash site. The wire was strung across the valley as part of a 4-kilometre-long electrical supply line installed by the local power authority only about five weeks before.

Fletcher FU-24

The pilot was engaged in a superphosphate spreading operation over hilly farmland. Just before noon he took off on his 72nd sortie of the day with the usual load of 14 hundredweight in the hopper. On the completion of the first sowing run the aircraft was turned to position it for the next run. As usual this put the plane out of sight to those on the airstrip as it passed behind an intervening spur. At about the time the plane was expected to reappear a loud bang was heard by the crew on the strip, and moments later a column of smoke was seen rising from behind the spur. The aircraft was found wrecked and burning. This was not a survivable crash. Physical evidence at the site showed that the Fletcher had struck the ground with its right wingtip first while banked past the vertical with the fuselage then impacting in a perpendicular attitude. Propeller score marks on the pasture indicated that the engine was developing power at the moment of the crash. The weather was fine and clear with a southwesterly breeze of about 5 knots. Not a cause factor in the accident. The pilot had recently completed an agricultural pilot course and had almost accumulated the fifty hours of supervised productive flying required before being cleared for unsupervised operations.

Fletcher FU-24

The single engine airplane was engaged in an aerial topdressing operation on a farm near Taumarunui. On the 43rd sortie of the day the aircraft failed to return to the airstrip as expected and a search found the crashed and burning Fletcher about mid-way between the sowing area and the airstrip. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and the fire was largely confined to the engine bay and cockpit. The pilot Robert Neville Scott was dead. Evidence showed that the pilot had made a 90 degree turn back towards the airstrip and had commenced jettisoning the 20 hundredweight ( 2,240 pounds, 995 kg ) superphosphate hopper load. The aircraft collided with the terrain on a 15 degree rising grassy slope at a low forward speed and high rate of descent. About 15 hundredweight of the load was still in the hopper. Both fuel tanks had been ruptured in the crash and there was an absence of Avtur odour on the ground around the LH tank. The engine was producing high rotational energy at the time of impact. There was no evidence of mechanical failure prior to impact. An autopsy of the pilot produced no evidence that the fire had begun in the air.

Fletcher FU-24

The pilot, sole on board, was completing a local topdressing sowing flight in the region of Mourea, north of Rotorua. While cruising at low height, facing the sun, the airplane struck a tree (27,5 meters high), causing the left wing to be torn off. Out of control, the airplane dove into the ground and crashed in flames about 100 meters further on. The pilot was killed and the airplane was destroyed.

Fletcher FU-24

Crashed in unknown circumstances. The pilot was injured and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.