Russley Golf Course Air Crash
21 November 1957

On Thursday, 21 November 1957 at 9.07am a Bristol Freighter belonging to Straits Air Freight Express Ltd (ZK-AYH) left Woodbourne Aerodrome bound for Paraparaumu. On board were the captain, Robert Hamilton, two first officers and the company’s founder and general manager, Tom O’Connell. With two officers on board the opportunity was taken for some training exercises: one of these was the feathering and unfeathering of the starboard propellor. Two minutes after this there was a sudden and severe vibration through the aircraft. The flight continued though without interruption, the plane landing in Paraparaumu at 9.30am.

The plane was then emptied and reloaded with cargo; two Aberdeen Angus cows travelled in specially constructed wooden crates. One of the first officers disembarked, being replaced by a university student as a passenger.

The aircraft left Paraparaumu at 10.09am heading for Oamaru via Timaru. The trip appeared uneventful with routine position reports being transmitted by radio at Wellington, Blenheim and Kaikoura. There were strong north-westerly wind conditions with some severe turbulence.

At 11.27am the aircraft gave its position as 10km north of the Waimakariri River mouth at 914 metres. From there it was intended to begin the descent to Timaru.

A sudden gust of wind registering 33 knots was recorded at Harewood at 11.33am. At about this time the Bristol was seen by a number of witnesses on the ground to literally fall to pieces. The starboard outer wing folded upwards and backwards and then separated, falling and landing on open farmland. The nose doors, the floor of the freight compartment (with the freight in position), and the rear portion of the fuselage with the fin and rudder attached, separated from the rest of the aircraft just before impact. Pieces were scattered over an area of more than a square mile.

The rest of the aircraft ploughed nose down into a row of pine trees on the south-east boundary of the Russley Golf Course. Here the flight deck and front section erupted in a huge sheet of flame and spread to the trees as the unused fuel sprayed over the area.

No distress call was received by the control tower at Harewood but emergency vehicles were soon on the scene. Some golfers, unaware of the disaster, were annoyed at their game being disrupted by heavy vehicles rumbling over the golf course.

One of the four crew was found to be still breathing but he died before medical aid arrived. The front portion of the plane was still burning and nothing could be done for the rest of the crew as they were tangled in the wreckage.

The cattle also died instantly, one of the mangled bodies becoming draped across the branch of a blackened pine tree about 10ft above the ground.

The closest eye witness giving an account to the media was Pauline Uhr whose home was on the corner of Harewood and Gardiners Road. The freighter had passed overhead when she was hanging out her washing. She reported hearing a harsh rending sound and had seen one wing tear from the aircraft. There had been no rocking or bucking of the plane beforehand and once the wing came off the fuselage plummeted to the ground.

An investigation by the Chief Inspector of Air Accidents into the disaster was opened and it was concluded that the cause of the structural failure was metal fatigue and the severe gust of wind had just been "the last straw". Modifications were made to this type of plane and no further trouble was experienced.

In November 1992, on the 35th anniversary of the crash, a memorial cairn to the four people who had lost their lives in this tragedy, pilot, Robert Hamilton, first officer Harry Torgerson, and passengers Tom O'Connell and James McLaggen, was unveiled. This memorial was under three birch trees in the grounds of the Brevet Club, not far from the original site of the crash. In 2007 the Russley Golf Course approved the placement of a permanent memorial to the crash on the original site, at the initiative of club member Phil Boyd. It was completed by 21 November 2007 in time for a 50th anniversary service.

Sources

• Christchurch Press: 22 November 1957, p.14
• Phillips, A. A., Guardians of flight Airport Fire Service, Christchurch International Airport, 1993.
• "Plane crash memorial", The Press, 9 November 2007, p A8
• "The day that plane wreckage rained down on Russley: lucky escape for golfers on course", The star weekender, 16 November 2007, p A3