Motu - Opotiki

On September 20, 2003 at 10:15 AM, Motu - Opotiki experienced a crash involving Fletcher FU-24, operated by Super Air, with the event recorded near Matawai Gisborne District Council.

The flight was categorized as ferry and the reported phase was flight at a mountains crash site.

2 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 2 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

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

The listed crash cause is human factor. Crashed during bad weather. Andrew Wilde was flying and George Muir was a passenger. While enroute from Motu - Opotiki the gully became un-negotiable, so Andrew decided to return to Motu by flying a reciprocal course low level, depicted by arrows on his hand held marine GPS. During the return trip to Motahora up the Otara river valley, he found that the cloud base had lowered even further than when he entered the valley 6 minutes prior & he became fully reliant on that little GPS. The GPS became our enemy & lured Andrew into the cloud base, which ended our flight abruptly. Testimony from George Muir, loader driver and passenger during this flight.

Aircraft reference details include registration ZK-BDS, MSN 001, year of manufacture 1954.