Unfortunately the first three months of 1965 have to date (April 1965) been the worst on record for air accidents. These included a number of topdressing crashes as well as the loss of a Cessna 180 which on 4 March crashed on Lake Shirley near the head of Caswell Sound, Fiordland, with the death of the pilot and one passenger, followed on 12 March by the crash of another Cessna 180 on the north-east face of Mt. Talbot, Fiordland, with four deaths.

by Ronald Jones, Journalist and Script Writer, New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, Wellington.