Otago-Southland coroner David Crerar is satisfied with a
Civil Aviation Authority investigation into the death of Ian
Douglas Sloan (59), of Tauranga, and has decided not to
continue with a coronial inquiry.
Mr Sloan was the pilot of a Cessna 172 Skyhawk which crashed
at Monk's Airstrip, near Arrowtown, on October 17 last year.
A CAA report found he had died from blunt force head injury,
coupled with severe facial fractures which caused upper
airways' obstruction and aspiration of blood.
His two passengers, son-in-law Wayne Candy and aviation
enthusiast Joan Urquhart, sustained serious injuries in the
crash, which destroyed the plane.
In a notification to the Ministry of Justice secretary, dated
September 19, Mr Crerar advised he accepted the CAA's
conclusions, concurred with the recommendations made and was
satisfied public interest had been served.
Following the incident, a CAA safety recommendation was
raised to develop information for pilots regarding
unsupervised operations at airstrips.
The "prudence" of obtaining additional training for airstrip
operations would also be highlighted and information would be
published in the CAA Vector magazine later this year.
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