Pioneer aviators vanish over the Tasman

George Hood and John Moncrieff made a ‘gallant if somewhat ill-organised attempt’ to make the first flight across the Tasman Sea. They took off from Richmond, Sydney in the Aotearoa in the early hours of 10 January 1928. The 2335-km flight to Trentham, just north of Wellington, was expected to take 14 hours.

This attempt at aviation history captured the public’s attention. By late afternoon 10,000 people had joined Laura Hood and Dorothy Moncrieff at Trentham Racecourse to welcome their husbands. They waited in vain. Radio signals were picked up for 12 hours, but then contact was lost. The aviators were never seen again.

On 11 September 1928 Australians Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm achieved what Hood and Moncrieff had died attempting when they landed the Southern Cross at Wigram, Christchurch.

Image: John Moncrieff and the monoplane Aotearoa. (Alexander Turnbull Library)