Thursday, 16 November 2006
The glider was found about 20 hours after it went missing
A father and son from Cornwall have been killed in a glider crash in New Zealand, police say.
Retired Air Commodore Owen Truelove, 69, and his son, James, 37, died when their aircraft crashed on the slopes of Mount Prospect, on the South Island.
The wreckage of the glider was found by a search plane after it went missing.
Owen Truelove was a qualified gliding instructor in Britain and New Zealand. He was an engineering officer in the Royal Air Force for 33 years.
Experienced flier
The search plane found the downed glider near Lake Hawea about 20 hours after it went missing.
The glider, named Lily May after Owen Truelove's young granddaughter, was reported overdue three hours after its last contact.
The two men were last heard from at about 1730 local time on Wednesday (0430 GMT), four hours after taking off from Omarama gliding field.
Omarama is 415 miles (668km) south-west of the capital, Wellington.
Police later confirmed that both men had died in the crash.
Mr Truelove was the current president of the Omarama Gliding Club and an extremely experienced flier.
He began flying gliders in 1954 when he was starting out in the RAF. After retiring from the RAF he worked as a defence and logistics consultant.
He flew the motorised glider from his home in Polzeath to New Zealand in 2004 to raise money for the RAF Benevolent Fund.
Extreme conditions
His son James, a father-of-one, lived in the tourist resort of Queenstown, where he ran a paragliding company.
Rescuers were prevented from getting to the scene for some time because of strong winds.
Gliding club spokesman Bill Walker said flying conditions were difficult when the men disappeared.
He said: "It was a particularly rough day with extreme conditions."
He added: "One always has to be wary in this area when these conditions prevail."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 153508.stm
