Volunteer aviation investigators spot possible wreckage of plane missing since 1978

Volunteer aviation investigators believe they may have spotted the submerged wreckage of a charter plane that disappeared almost 50 years ago with seven people on board in South Westland.Police announced on Wednesday that a renewed search would be launched in Lake Moeraki near Haast for the single-engine Piper Cherokee 6.ZK-EBU took off from Dunedin's Taieri airfield for a scenic flight through the Southern Fiords on 29 December 1978.As poor weather rolled in from the Tasman Sea, it vanished without a trace, with 28-year-old pilot Edward "Ned" Morrison, five members of the Dunedin-based Stuart family and 20-year-old David Hogg on board.Volunteers from the group Lost Aircraft New Zealand have spent decades on their own investigation work and searches for the plane.Air ambulance pilot Nathan Mauchline said the group had a breakthrough a few months ago when team leader Gavin Grimmer took their search off dry land and onto water."We've been doing sonar searches of the lake and we came across an object that measures about the size of the plane," he said."If it is there, I'm pretty confident that they will find it. We believe that it's in about five metres of water."Lodge theoryMauchline said the group had earlier decided to probe a whitebaiter's report of a low-flying plane heading inland up the Moeraki River at dusk.They discovered that the plane's pilot had visited a lodge at the end of Lake Moeraki two weeks before the flight, spawning a theory, he said."It's getting to the end of the day, there's no radio communications and he thinks to himself, well that lodge I stayed at a few weeks ago, I remember seeing a big field, a big kilometre-long field off the end that I could land the plane in and I know this lodge and they'll put us up for the night," Mauchline said.If the Piper Cherokee crashed into the lake, the passengers would have been trapped in the cabin, he said."What happens with a Cherokee is if the wing impacts or there's any twist in the fuselage at all, all the doors would be locked. They would be stuck."The group handed their sonar evidence to police, who agreed to work with Defence Force and Coastguard crews to try to find the object.Acting Inspector Mark Kirkwood said the search was an evidence-gathering exercise."There's no confirmation that there's plane wreckage there but the image does warrant further investigation," he said.Volunteers, relatives of passengers thrilledNavy specialists would start by using an advanced side-scan sonar to try to find the object, Kirkwood said."If we do locate something of a large size and metal, or similar, we will deploy the police divers," he said.Grimmer said while the plane "ain't found until it's found", he and his volunteers and relatives of the ZK-EBU passengers were thrilled."We are all completely blown away after all these years [by] the effort the police, military and Coastguard are prepared to put in to hopefully bring about finality to the families and put an end to this long overdue mystery," he said.Former Te Anau police officer Lloyd Matheson said early searches for the plane focused on land.The search area was vast and rugged, he said."The last known point of interest was Milford, heading towards Puysegur. There are massive fjords, sea coastal areas, mountains-a huge area to search. It was like looking for a needle in the haystack, really," he said.'One of New Zealand's biggest aviation mysteries'Fiorland's John von Tunzelman was a crew member on one of the search helicopters and spent almost 30 hours peering into dense bush and remote beaches."[It was] most disappointing not to find them. It's one of those things that you remember because you put so much effort into it," he said."If they can recover the wreckage, they may be able to establish what caused a forced landing into Lake Moeraki. There's all these questions to answer, hopefully that will be achieved."Volunteer investigator Jonathan Mauchline said the renewed search had the potential to provide long-awaited answers to loved ones."The families of these people are still alive and just haven't had closure for 50 years," he said."To find this airplane puts to bed one of New Zealand's biggest aviation mysteries and it'll bring closure to all the people involved."The three-day operation begins at the Lake Moeraki boat ramp on Monday 21 September.Police have asked the public to stay clear of the search area.Read historic news articles on the plane's disappearance below: