Lieutenant John Moncrieff and Captain George Hood were two New Zealanders who vanished on 10 January 1928 while attempting the first
trans-Tasman
Trans-Tasman is an adjective used primarily to signify the relationship between Australia and New Zealand. The term refers to the Tasman Sea, which lies between the two countries. For example, ''trans-Tasman commerce'' refers to commerce betwee ...
flight from Australia to
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. Radio signals were received from their aircraft for 12 hours after their departure from Sydney, but despite a number of purported sightings in New Zealand, and many land searches in the intervening years,
no trace of the aviators or their aircraft has ever been found.
Pilots
Lieutenant John Moncrieff
John Robert Moncrieff was a New Zealander by adoption, being born at
Lerwick
Lerwick (; non, Leirvik; nrn, Larvik) is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010.
Centred off the north coast of the Scottish mainland ...
in the
Shetland Islands
Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.
The islands lie about to the no ...
on 22 September 1894. Educated at
Leith Academy
Leith Academy is a state school in Leith, Edinburgh. It currently educates around 1000 pupils and around 2,800 part-time adult learners.
Mike Irving has been head teacher since August 2017.
History
It is one of the oldest schools in Scotland, w ...
in Scotland, he emigrated to New Zealand early at the age of 16 and trained as a motor engineer.
He enlisted in the armed forces in December 1917, and took a flying course with the Canterbury (NZ) Aviation Company at the Sockburn aerodrome (later renamed
Wigram Aerodrome
Wigram Aerodrome is located in the Christchurch suburb of Sockburn, later to be split-suburb of Wigram and now split again as Wigram Skies. It was gifted by Sir Henry Wigram for the Canterbury (NZ) Aviation Company on 20 September 1916 and ...
). Qualifying for his
wings
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expresse ...
after the 1918
Armistice
An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the La ...
brought an end to the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he resumed his former position as second in charge in a motor garage in
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
.
[Rudge, C.J., 2001, 'Missing! Aircraft missing in New Zealand 1928–2000', Adventure Air, Lyttelton, New Zealand, ]
Captain George Hood
George Hood was born on 24 June 1891 in
Masterton
Masterton ( mi, Whakaoriori), a large town in the Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand, operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa, a r ...
, the principal town of the
Wairarapa
The Wairarapa (; ), a geographical region of New Zealand, lies in the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay Region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service ...
district in the south-eastern part on the
North Island
The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...
of New Zealand. Educated in Masterton, he was the son of a local farmer and was fascinated with flying from boyhood.
[Hood Aerodrome – Masterton District Council](_blank)
/ref> The First World War provided the opportunity for him to become an aviator. Leaving New Zealand in 1914 as a sergeant with the 9th (Wellington East Coast) Squadron of the Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment
The Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment was a mounted infantry regiment from New Zealand, raised for service during the First World War. It was assigned to the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
Th ...
, Hood transferred to the Army Service Corps in Egypt. He saw service with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force
The New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) was the title of the military forces sent from New Zealand to fight alongside other British Empire and Dominion troops during World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945). Ultimately, the NZE ...
in Egypt and France. At the end of 1916 he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
, colors =
, colours_label =
, march =
, mascot =
, anniversaries =
, decorations ...
, qualifying as a service pilot on 13 October 1917. Thirteen days later he was seriously injured in a crash while flying a DH5, which resulted in his lower right leg being amputated. Despite this he maintained an interest in aviation, and took every opportunity to continue flying on his return to New Zealand.
Trans-Tasman attempt
Planning
Moncrieff had been wanting to fly the Tasman Sea
The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abe ...
for some time. In 1925, the ''Southland Times
''The Southland Times'' is the regional daily paper for Southland, including Invercargill, and neighbouring parts of Otago, in New Zealand. It is now owned by media business Stuff Ltd, formerly the New Zealand division of Fairfax Media.
Histo ...
'' newspaper announced that Moncrieff was to "attempt a flight from Australia to New Zealand in a four-seater, 450 hp open-sea reconnaissance machine made by William Beardmore and Company
William Beardmore and Company was a British engineering and shipbuilding conglomerate based in Glasgow and the surrounding Clydeside area. It was active from 1886 to the mid-1930s and at its peak employed about 40,000 people. It was founded and ...
". It was estimated about £8,500 would be needed to purchase the aircraft and to cover expenses, but little came of this proposal and Moncreiff's project lapsed for the time being.
However, in 1927, several notable ocean crossing flights were successfully completed. In May, Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...
won the Orteig Prize
The Orteig Prize was a reward offered to the first Allied aviator(s) to fly non-stop from New York City to Paris or vice versa.Bak. Pages 28 and 29.
Several famous aviators made unsuccessful attempts at the New York–Paris flight before the rela ...
by flying non-stop from New York to Paris in a single-engined Ryan monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes.
A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...
;[Lindbergh, C.A., 1953, 'Spirit of St. Louis', John Murray, Albemarle St, London] in June, lieutenants Lester J. Maitland
Lester James Maitland (February 8, 1899 – March 27, 1990) was an aviation pioneer and career officer in the United States Army Air Forces and its predecessors. Maitland began his career as a Reserve pilot in the U.S. Army Air Service during Wo ...
and Albert Hergenberger flew from Oakland
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
, California to Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
, Hawaii in a three-engined Fokker C-2
Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names. It was founded in 1912 in Berlin, Germany, and became famous for its fighter aircraft in World War I. In 1919 ...
named "Bird of Paradise". Then, in October, Captain Dieudonne Costes and Lieutenant Commander Joseph Le Brix flew across the South Atlantic from Senegal
Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...
to Port Natal
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
in Brazil in a single-engined Breguet XIX. These flights raised aviation's profile and generated considerable interest among the general public.
After Lindbergh's flight, Moncrieff again proposed a trans-Tasman flight. On gaining some financial backing from an uncle, Moncrieff secured the assistance of Captain Ivan Kight, a well-known barrister and solicitor from Dannevirke, a rural town in the Tararua District
The Tararua District is a district near the south-east corner of New Zealand's North Island that is administered by the Tararua District Council. It has a population of and an area of 4,364.65 km². The Tararua District Council was created b ...
. Kight had qualified as a pilot in 1916 and, like Moncrieff and Hood, was a founding member of the New Zealand Air Force
The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) ( mi, Te Tauaarangi o Aotearoa, "The Warriors of the Sky of New Zealand"; previously ', "War Party of the Blue") is the aerial service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed from New Zeala ...
, constituted as part of the Territorial Force
The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry i ...
in 1923. Kight became heavily involved in raising finance, organising the flight and dealing with the Australian and New Zealand governments. Hood, who at the time made a living driving a taxi in Masterton, came into the scheme at a later date, finding generous support from people in Wairarapa.
As the subscription list grew, Kight cabled Ryan Airlines Inc. in California for quotations on an aircraft similar to that used by Lindbergh during his trans-Atlantic flight. After Lindbergh's flight, Moncrieff, Kight and Hood felt confident that a Ryan monoplane would be suitable for the Tasman flight, even though Lindbergh's custom-built ''Spirit of St. Louis
The ''Spirit of St. Louis'' (formally the Ryan NYP, registration: N-X-211) is the custom-built, single-engine, single-seat, high-wing monoplane that was flown by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first solo nonstop transatlant ...
'' differed significantly from the production version of the Ryan Brougham that was ordered for the Tasman flight.
Aircraft
The crossing would be attempted in a slightly modified early model Ryan B-1 Brougham high-wing monoplane named the '' Aotearoa''. It was powered by a nine-cylinder air-cooled
Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. In all combustion engines, a great percentage of the heat ge ...
Wright J-5
The Wright R-790 Whirlwind was a series of nine-cylinder air-cooled radial aircraft engines built by Wright Aeronautical Corporation, with a total displacement of about and around . These engines were the earliest members of the Wright Whirl ...
radial engine
The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ca ...
. The standard aircraft had five seats, arranged as two pairs front and rear, with a single fifth seat behind the rear pair; but to give the necessary range an extra fuel tank was fitted in the cabin in the place normally occupied by the front left seat, giving a total fuel capacity of , and a flight duration of about 20 hours. The extra fuel tank created an unforeseen problem as it precluded any chance of pilots changing places in the air. This restricted the control of the aircraft to one person for the duration of the flight, and meant any other crew members were essentially passengers. The aircraft was named after the most widely known and commonly accepted Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
name for New Zealand, which is usually translated as "the land of the long white cloud". It was registered G-AUNZ, thus referencing both countries of departure and destination in its official designation.
The ''Aotearoa'' was delivered in boxes to Point Cook
Point Cook is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham local government area. Point Cook recorded a population of 66,781 at the 2021 census.
Point Cook ...
, Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, where it was reassembled. It was test-flown by Moncrieff on 29 December 1927. On 2 January, ''Aotearoa'' took off for Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
, near Sydney, piloted by Moncrieff and with Hood, Kight and Aircraftman F. Ward from No 1 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
, colours =
, colours_label =
, march =
, mascot =
, anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...
on board. Several hours later they landed near Bong Bong, an hour short of their destination and uncertain of their position. During the flight they believed they were sending radio messages but found on landing that their radio had not been working at all.
On arrival at Richmond the following day, the engine was checked and adjusted, and the radio and generator overhauled. After a further short test flight on 7 January, Moncrieff ordered the aircraft to be fuelled for the flight to New Zealand.
While all these preparations were going on there were a number of exchanges between the Australian and New Zealand governments over the suitability of the ''Aotearoa'' for the flight. In September 1927, the Australian aviation authorities had prohibited a Lieutenant K. M . Frewen from attempting a flight from Hobart
Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
, Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
, to Bluff
Bluff or The Bluff may refer to:
Places Australia
* Bluff, Queensland, Australia, a town
* The Bluff, Queensland (Ipswich), a rural locality in the city of Ipswich
* The Bluff, Queensland (Toowoomba Region), a rural locality
* Bluff River (New ...
unless Frewen used a seaplane
A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...
, in the belief that a landplane was not suitable for long-distance flights over water. The Australian federal authorities then went further when they announced that they "intended to prevent the carrying of passengers in any machine that was not either a seaplane, a flying boat
A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...
, or an amphibian
Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...
on any flight over the sea for a greater distance than 50 miles". The ''Aotearoa'' was a landplane, with no ability to land on the sea. After a somewhat confused and confusing exchange of messages, the matter was finally clarified on 3 January, when the Australians announced that a veto on the flight had been lifted after an exchange of cables with the New Zealand government.
It had always been the intention that the aircraft would carry only two people on the Tasman flight. As Moncrieff had been the only person to pilot the ''Aotearoa'', and the trip was his idea, he was the obvious choice as pilot. On 6 January, Kight and Hood tossed a coin to decide who would be the second crewman, with Hood winning the toss.
The flight was expected to take about 14 hours,[Today in History , NZHistory.net.nz, New Zealand history online](_blank)
/ref> so a take-off in the early morning hours was necessary to enable a landing in daylight at Trentham Racecourse
Trentham Racecourse is the main thoroughbred horse racecourse for the Wellington city area in New Zealand. It is located in the suburb of Trentham in Upper Hutt, next to Trentham Military Camp.
The races are conducted by the Wellington Racing Cl ...
, the chosen destination in the Hutt Valley
The Hutt Valley (or 'The Hutt') is the large area of fairly flat land in the Hutt River valley in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Like the river that flows through it, it takes its name from Sir William Hutt, a director of the New Zeala ...
north of Wellington.
With the aircraft and the crew ready, and the way cleared by the aviation authorities, attention turned to the weather. On the evening of 9 January, conditions were assessed as "particularly favourable" and Moncrieff and Hood went to Richmond to prepare the aircraft. After further weather information from New Zealand and ships at sea, they decided to take off on their flight.
Flight
The engine was started at 02:00 Sydney time on Tuesday 10 January 1928, but an over-supply of engine oil caused oil to spray on to the windscreen. This was quickly fixed, but press reporters insisting on last-minute interviews further delayed take-off and the ''Aotearoa'' did not become airborne until 02:44 (05:14 New Zealand time), immediately turning on course for New Zealand. The take-off on the Tasman flight was only the aircraft's fifth since being reassembled after delivery.
Thirty-two minutes later, at 05:46 NZ time, the officer of the watch on the trans-Tasman steamer ''Maunganui'', east of Sydney Heads
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountains ...
, heard "the soft regular whirr" of an aircraft engine passing overhead, although he did not see the aircraft itself. The timing and the position of the steamer indicated an aircraft ground speed
Ground speed is the horizontal speed of an aircraft relative to the Earth’s surface. It is vital for accurate navigation that the pilot has an estimate of the ground speed that will be achieved during each leg of a flight.
An aircraft diving ve ...
of , about right for the intended flight.
For simplicity, Moncrieff and Hood had planned to fly a rhumb line
In navigation, a rhumb line, rhumb (), or loxodrome is an arc crossing all meridians of longitude at the same angle, that is, a path with constant bearing as measured relative to true north.
Introduction
The effect of following a rhumb li ...
course, intending to make landfall at Farewell Spit
Farewell Spit ( mi, Onetahua) is a narrow sand spit at the northern end of the Golden Bay, South Island of New Zealand. It runs eastwards from Cape Farewell, the island's northernmost point. Farewell Spit is a legally protected Nature Reserve ...
at the western entrance to Cook Strait
Cook Strait ( mi, Te Moana-o-Raukawa) separates the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The strait connects the Tasman Sea on the northwest with the South Pacific Ocean on the southeast. It is wide at its narrowest point,McLintock, A H, ...
. This was not the shortest course—that would have required more complicated navigation to fly a great circle
In mathematics, a great circle or orthodrome is the circular intersection of a sphere and a plane passing through the sphere's center point.
Any arc of a great circle is a geodesic of the sphere, so that great circles in spherical geomet ...
course—but the difference over the trans-Tasman flight was not prohibitive. Unexpected winds could cause a drift north or south of the intended course, making an exact landfall unlikely, but the ''Aotearoa'' carried no flight instruments
Flight instruments are the instruments in the cockpit of an aircraft that provide the pilot with data about the flight situation of that aircraft, such as altitude, airspeed, vertical speed, heading and much more other crucial information in fli ...
that could detect or compensate for such a drift. The radio had no navigational capability or function.
Arrangements for radio contact were for the aircraft to send out a continuous tone for five minutes every quarter of an hour, as the pilots had only a rudimentary knowledge of Morse code
Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...
. This schedule was not adhered to, for the tone was heard for longer periods at irregular intervals. Excitement mounted in New Zealand during the day, and by early evening an estimated 10,000 people had arrived at Trentham to greet the airmen, including Dorothy Moncrieff and Laura Hood, the aviators' wives.
Missing
At 17:22 NZ time, when the aircraft had been in the air for just over 12 hours, and should have been within about off New Zealand's coast, signals from the ''Aotearoa'' ceased abruptly.
With the cessation of radio signals hopefulness gave way to anxiety, although the relatively poor reliability of airborne radio at the time did not necessarily mean that loss of signal equalled the loss of the aircraft. Searchlight
A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...
s were used to illuminate the clouds that were building up, and rockets were still being sent up at 01:40 on 11 January, but the crowd waited in vain. Moncrieff, Hood, and the ''Aotearoa'' were never seen again.
Many reports of supposed sightings of the aircraft came in during the evening and night of 10 to 11 January, of varying degrees of credibility. Most claimed to see the lights of the ''Aotearoa'', although Kight affirmed the aircraft carried no navigation light
A navigation light, also known as a running or position light, is a source of illumination on a watercraft, aircraft or spacecraft, meant to give information on the craft's position, heading, or status. Some navigation lights are colour-coded ...
s or flares, and the only source of light apart from the aircraft's exhaust was a small pocket torch that would not be seen at any distance. Some of the most apparently reliable sightings could be interpreted as the ''Aotearoa'' making landfall north of the intended track near Cape Egmont
Cape Egmont, splitting Northern and Southern Taranaki Bights, is the westernmost point of Taranaki, on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is located close to the volcanic cone of Mount Taranaki or Mount Egmont.
It was named '' ...
, tracking along the Southern Taranaki
Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont.
The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth Dist ...
coast, and then cutting across the South Taranaki Bight
The South Taranaki Bight is a large bay on the west coast of New Zealand, south of Taranaki, west of the Manawatu, north and west of the western entrance of Cook Strait and north of the South Island. The name is sometimes used for a much smaller ...
to the coast near Paekakariki, intending to round Cape Terawhiti
Cape Terawhiti is the southwesternmost point of the North Island of New Zealand.
The cape is located 16 kilometres to the west of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Ohau Point, located on the northern tip of Cape Terawhiti and, along ...
and fly up Wellington Harbour to the Hutt Valley
The Hutt Valley (or 'The Hutt') is the large area of fairly flat land in the Hutt River valley in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Like the river that flows through it, it takes its name from Sir William Hutt, a director of the New Zeala ...
. This would have been a valid scenario if the aircraft had drifted north of its intended trans-Tasman course.
Searches
Starting on 11 January, air, sea and land searches were carried out for many days in the hope of finding the aviators alive at sea, or on a remote beach, or at least of finding some wreckage that might indicate their fate. Nothing was found at the time. Many land searches have been made since then, mostly centring on Mount Stokes, at the highest point in the rugged bush-covered Marlborough Sounds
The Marlborough Sounds are an extensive network of sea-drowned valleys at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand. The Marlborough Sounds were created by a combination of land subsidence and rising sea levels. According to Māori m ...
area, based on a number of supposed sightings in the area. No evidence has ever been found of the ''Aotearoas wreckage, or any other trace of the aviators. A chance sighting of what may have been plane wreckage in dense bush near Tōtaranui
Tōtaranui is a 1 km long beach and the site of a large campsite in the Tasman Region of New Zealand administered by the Department of Conservation (DOC).
It is located in Abel Tasman National Park toward the northern end of the Abel Tasm ...
in what is now Abel Tasman National Park
Abel Tasman National Park is a New Zealand national park located between Golden Bay and Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere at the north end of the South Island. It is named after Abel Tasman, who in 1642 became the first European explorer to sight New ...
by youths in the 1960s led to a full-scale search of the area in 2013. No wreckage was found.
The occurrence of supposed sightings around the time and approximate place of an expected arrival mirrored generally similar events after the first attempted Paris-New York flight by Nungesser and Coli in May 1927, where many reports of sightings were made in North America, and land searches are still carried out from time to time.
Legacy
The ''Aotearoa'' was the first aircraft to go missing in or near New Zealand. While other aircraft had crashed, until Moncrieff and Hood's flight, none were lost without trace. In 1931, the Masterton aerodrome was renamed Hood Aerodrome
Hood Aerodrome is an aerodrome, located in Masterton, New Zealand, it is located 1 NM South West of the town centre in the suburb of Solway. The aerodrome was named after George Hood, a pioneer Masterton aviator who died trying to make the fi ...
, the name it still bears today. A number of streets throughout New Zealand are named "Moncrieff" or "Hood" as memorials to the pioneers.
The first successful flight
On 11 September 1928 two Australians, Charles Kingsford Smith
Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith (9 February 18978 November 1935), nicknamed Smithy, was an Australian aviation pioneer. He piloted the first transpacific flight and the first flight between Australia and New Zealand.
Kingsford Smith was b ...
and Charles Ulm, achieved what Hood and Moncrieff had died attempting, when they landed the ''Southern Cross
Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for ...
'' at Wigram
Wigram is a suburb in the southwest of Christchurch, New Zealand. The suburb lies close to the industrial estates of Sockburn and the satellite retail and residential zone of Hornby, and has undergone significant growth in recent years due to h ...
, Christchurch.
See also
* List of people who disappeared mysteriously at sea
Throughout history, people have mysteriously disappeared at sea, many on voyages aboard floating vessels or traveling via aircraft. The following is a list of known individuals who have mysteriously vanished in open waters, and whose whereabouts r ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moncrieff And Hood
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1928
Aviation accidents and incidents in New Zealand
Aviation pioneers
Duos
Missing aviators
New Zealand aviators
People lost at sea