Geic's First Local
p. 71 · Read in the full issue
Aircraft In
Test Flight Crash
A Super Ralley 885, a light aircraft shipped from France for the Roman Catholic mission in the GEIC, crashed at an improvised airstrip at Teaorae reke, Tarawa, on September 26 when it came in to land at the end of a test flight. The undercarriage was torn off, and one wing and the propeller were buckled.
The aircraft, which Bishop Guichet intended to use as a means of get ting around his far-flung flock, was the first civil aircraft to be based in the GEIC, and there had been great interest in its arrival. The Gilberts have only recently begun their era of civil aviation with a regular Fiji Airways service connecting Tarawa, Funafuti, Nausori and Nadi (Fiji).
The accident was a severe blow to the mission, which has no plans to get another aircraft.