Flight 92 Crash on Mount Ruapehu (ZK-BWA)

Flight Details and Disappearance Flight 92 departed Wellington Airport at 1117LT for a scheduled flight to Rotorua. The aircraft cleared the Wellington Control Zone and reported its position at Foxton and east of Ohakea. No further messages were received, and no distress calls were heard. ## Crash Sequence At 1155LT, the aircraft was sighted over the northeast slopes of Mount Ruapehu. Shortly after, the starboard wing, complete with its engine, separated from the fuselage. The remaining structure plunged toward the ground, an explosion occurred, and the fuselage burst into flames. The aircraft crashed on the mountain face at an altitude of 7,300 ft amsl, 1,276 yd from Te Heu Heu Peak. ## Casualties The pilot and five passengers died instantly. The crew consisted of Captain Alf Bartlett. The passengers were Marlene Boynton, Nicholas Crook, two children, and Irvine Down. ## Official Findings The official investigation determined that the cause of the accident was the detachment of the starboard mainplane in flight. A contributory cause was the pilot's decision to fly close to the mountain summit in an aircraft whose starboard wing structure had been appreciably weakened by spar cap fractures and fatigue cracking from a past incident, unknown to the pilot. Severe turbulence or a pilot manoeuvre caused the starboard propeller to strike part of the mountain. The resulting vibrational loads, combined with violent turbulence encountered thereafter, imposed stresses that the weakened wing structure could not withstand.