{"id":10685,"date":"2024-07-12T08:29:34","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T20:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=10685"},"modified":"2024-07-12T08:29:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T20:29:34","slug":"45-years-on-today-in-history-plane-crash-kills-nine-in-bua-fiji-which-also-includes-a-couple-from-gisbourne-nz-and-pilot-from-melbourne-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=10685","title":{"rendered":"45 years on -Today in History -Plane crash kills nine in Bua ,FIJI which also includes a couple from Gisbourne, Nz and pilot from Melbourne, Australia."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-column post_img_text is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"entry-content post_content wp-block-post-content is-layout-flow wp-block-post-content-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>On July 15, 1979, the news of a plane crash that killed nine people shocked Fiji. The story was published in The Fiji Times, saying the Fiji Air Islander crashed on a hill near Bua airstrip on Thursday, July 12.<\/p>\n<p>A search began when villagers found the crashed plane on a hill six miles north-east of the airstrip.<\/p>\n<p>The eight passengers and the pilot all seemed to have died instantly, the Director of Civil Aviation, Mike Varley, said.<\/p>\n<p>Police stood guard over the crash and bodies were brought out by helicopter to Bua, then by fixed-wing transported by plane to Suva.<\/p>\n<p>The crash was the first fatal civil aviation disaster in Fiji.<\/p>\n<p>The twin-engined plane left Nausori Airport on the morning of Thursday, July 12 and was scheduled to arrive at Bua airstrip 40 minutes later.<\/p>\n<p>Villagers living in hills around the airstrip reported later that they had heard the drone of an approaching plane through mist-shrouded hill, and then a crash.<\/p>\n<p>After hearing a broadcast asking Bua people to help with the search, villagers set out and found the wreck on Saturday, July 14.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Varley said they lit a signal fire which was seen by two boys who contacted a police party which had in turn contacted a helicopter, which honed in on the signal fire and landed on a pad the villagers had cut half a mile from the wreck.<\/p>\n<p>The helicopter crew confirmed that all aboard the Islander were dead, Mr Varley said.<\/p>\n<p>Those aboard the plane were, Ruth Manulevu, 53, of Lami; her sister-in-law, Mary Ah Tong, 42, of Vatuvia Road, Lami; Elizabeth Peckham, 30, of Lami and Ms Peckham\u2019s brother, William Peckham, 26, of Lami, Esala Delana of Suva, Aritema Warua, of Macuata, John and Sandy Stevenson of Gisborne, New Zealand; and the pilot, Captain Gary Cope, aged 24, from Melbourne, Australia.<\/p>\n<p>FIJI TIMES\u00a0 [FILE]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-column print_hide side-section is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-fijitimes-social-sharing\">\n<div class=\"social-icon\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"social-icon\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"social-icon\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"social-icon\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"social-icon \"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"exchange-calc\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On July 15, 1979, the news of a plane crash that killed nine people shocked Fiji. The story was published in The Fiji Times, saying the Fiji Air Islander crashed on a hill near Bua airstrip on Thursday, July 12. A search began when villagers found the crashed plane on a hill six miles north-east [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10687,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10685\/revisions\/10687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}