First fatalities on a scheduled air service in NZ

All three people on board a Dominion Airlines Desoutter were killed in a crash near Wairoa. This was the first fatal accident involving a scheduled passenger air service in New Zealand.

The airline had helped maintain contact between the areas devastated by the recent Hawke’s Bay earthquake and the rest of New Zealand.

New Zealand’s first regular scheduled passenger service began in 1930, when Air Travel launched a tri-weekly service between Christchurch and Dunedin using a De Havilland DH50 borrowed from the government. Passenger numbers were low and after nine months Air Travel closed down.

Soon afterwards Dominion Airlines Ltd began a daily service between Gisborne and Hastings. This proved invaluable in keeping the areas ravaged by the Napier earthquake in contact with the rest of New Zealand. Unfortunately just five days after the earthquake, the company’s Desoutter monoplane crashed at Wairoa, killing its three occupants. Dominion Airlines was forced into liquidation.

Image: Desoutter aircraft (Wikipedia)