ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 26202
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| Date: | Monday 2 September 1974 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Piper PA-31-350 Chieftain |
| Owner/operator: | St. Joseph Flying Service Inc |
| Registration: | N54357 |
| MSN: | 31-7405248 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | near Whitianga Aerodrome, Waikato -
 New Zealand
|
| Phase: | Take off |
| Nature: | Ferry/positioning |
| Departure airport: | Whitianga Airport, New Zealand (NZWT) |
| Auckland, New Zealand (AKL/NZAA) | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Written off (damaged beyond repair) 2 September 1974: crashed on take off at Whitianga Airport, New Zealand, at the end of a delivery flight from US-based manufacturer to British owner. (Anglo Normandy Airways). Both persons on board killed. Pilot stopping-over in New Zealand for several days. During take-off, for a flight from Whitianga to Auckland, the aircraft suffered an engine failure and impacted vertically behind the beach at Whitianga.
Autopsy of the pilot revealed acute interstitial myocarditis conducive toward destruction of the cardiac muscle fibres. It is a silent disease prone to cause irregularities in cardiac rhythm, fainting, and occasionally sudden death. The possibility that the pilot had become physically incapacitated to some degree could not be entirely discounted.
Probable cause: The pilot was unable to cope with an in-flight emergency initiated by a power plant malfunction and compounded by poor weather conditions, as a consequence of which the aircraft stalled and the pilot lost control at too low an altitude to effect recovery.
Aircraft had only been registered in the USA as N54357 on August 30 1974, but the US registration was cancelled by the FAA on September 9 1974 (seven days after its accident)
Sources:
1. [LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.baaa-acro.com/1974/archives/crash-of-a-piper-pa-31-navajo-chieftain-in-new-zealand-2-killed/]
2. http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=54357
3. http://drmeerahmad3.tripod.com/id3.html
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 27-Sep-2008 01:00 | ASN archive | Added |
| 21-Apr-2015 00:56 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Aircraft type, Cn, Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
| 05-Aug-2020 01:37 | Ron Averes | Updated [Location] |
| 30-Jan-2022 07:10 | Ron Averes | Updated [Location] |
| 12-Feb-2022 09:12 | Ron Averes | Updated [Location] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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