Mon, Oct 20, 2003
Newly Married Couple Killed In Firey Incident
New Zealand has
suffered another aviation setback and this time, it's cost the
country an aviation pioneer. Young Eagles pilot Nola Mary Pickard
and her husband, Michael Stanley Pickard, were killed Saturday when
their vintage Tiger Moth crashed in flames, just after launching
from Taumarunui airstrip.
Nola was an enthusiastic promoter of the vintage planes and
devoted her time to encouraging young people to share her love of
flying. She was an EAA Young Eagles coordinator for the New Zealand
flying club. Nola was also a member of the Tiger Moth Club.
That organization recently suffered another loss when it lost
Barry Crowley in the crash of an AirFreight New Zealand Convair 580
in heavy weather near Wellington. "It has not been a good couple of
weeks for us. "The aviation community is very close-knit. We mostly
know one another."
There was no immediate explanation for the incident. It happened
just as the Pickards were getting ready for a spot-landing
competition. Some 60 people watched as their Tiger Moth (file photo
of type, below) stalled in a turn, then spun into the ground. As
the horrified crowd looked on, the Pickard's aircraft was engulfed
in flames.
It was the first fatal accident in the Tiger Moth Club's 34-year
history. Sunday, friends stopped by the crash site to lay wreaths
and flowers in the meadow where the Pickard's went down. New
Zealand civil aviation officials were at the crash site on Sunday,
trying to determine a cause. That, said one investigator, could be
months in coming. "We've just gone through the controls this
morning, and made sure everything's as it should be," Tom McCready
told Television New Zealand. "We have found nothing untoward."
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