Cees Broere
April 5, 2008 at 2:18 pm

Chatham Islands Sunderland, what happend to the bits?

Hi all,

Large sections of a Sunderland were scattered around the Chatham Islands with complete nose section, wingsections etc. still about. Any info if they are still there?

Cheers

Cees

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By: flyernzl - 6th April 2008 at 11:23

The forum link is
http://rnzaf.proboards43.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=Airshows&thread=1177719990&page=1

The Sunderland involved was NZ4111 ex VB880. The incident occurred when the aircraft hit an uncharted rock during taxi to t/off to Chatham Islands 4Nov59 – at that time the military Sunderlands provided the only air link between mainland New Zealand and the islands.

The aircraft was dismantled on-site. Some parts were removed by an RNZAF team for use at the RNZAF Museum at Wigram in 1994, the remainder is still at the Chathams. I am told that the islanders have no wish to see the rest of it depart.

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By: Cees Broere - 5th April 2008 at 15:34

Thanks Mark,

Dave used to frequent this forum too.

Cheers

Cees

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By: Jagx204 - 5th April 2008 at 15:21

NZ4111 / VB880

Cees, there was a report on this NZ based forum:

http://rnzaf.proboards43.com/

About this aircraft, it was in Jan 2007 and included some pictures of the still very substantial remains. The forum is run by Dave Homewood who frequents the ‘Plane talk’ forum.
If you register with the NZ forum and use the search function I’m sure you can find it.

Regards