Ngaruawahia - Ngaruawahia

On March 30, 1994 at 12:00 PM, Ngaruawahia - Ngaruawahia experienced a crash involving Fletcher FU-24, operated by Jetspread, with the event recorded near Ngaruawahia Waikato Regional Council.

The flight was categorized as spraying (agricultural) and the reported phase was flight at a plain, valley crash site.

1 people were known to be on board, 1 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 1, crew fatalities: 1, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The day's operation commenced at about 06:30 with the student flying and the instructor operating the loader.The intention was to fly for two hours when a break would be taken in order to rest the trainee pilot, check the fuel state, and review the sowing operation so far. Shortly before 08:20 the trainee took off on what was about the twentieth sowing flight of the day. The Fletcher was loaded with 19 hundredweight (cwt) or 965 kg of lime in the hopper. The usual pattern was flown and the aircraft was positioned for a sowing run along a ridge face at about 100 feet AGL. However, on this run no lime was dropped and at about the usual commencement point for sowing the aircraft made a sharp turn to the left and flew out over level ground, away from the ridge. After turning through about 120 degrees the plane pitched nose-down suddenly and dived almost vertically into the ground. It bounced over a hedge and came to rest 10 metres beyond the initial point of impact. This was not a survivable crash. Despite the spillage of considerable fuel no fire broke out. The flying weather was calm with good visibility. Weather was not a factor in this accident.

Aircraft reference details include registration ZK-DZB, MSN 202, year of manufacture 1974.