Trevor Austin Hooper Collinge

People Buried Here

Description

This family was killed in the ill-fated ZK-AGK "Kaka" which crashed at Mt Ruapehu, killing both crew members and 11 passengers. It took nearly a week to find the bodies.

Second Officer, Brian Charles Russell, 1 of the 2 crew members, is also buried here at Archer St cemetery.

Gisborne Herald, 2 Nov 1948

CHILD's BODY STILL IN CRADLE The first body taken from the wrecked airliner was the smallest. It was that of two-year-old Keith Collinge, who had been sleeping or lying in a cradle during the flight. He was killed instantly, as were all the other passengers. When the search party entered the Kaka, the child was still in his cradle. Several of the search party had small sons of their own. To them, the small body was the most harrowing sight in a day of many. The cradle and the boy were lifted into a canvas stretcher. Then, followed son afterward by the bodies of both of his parents, he was borne away from the wreckage. With the 12 others in the plane, he had lain under the pure white shroud of Ruapehu's snows for just a few hours short of a week.

.. the story at link ..

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/230929670/trevor-austin_hooper-collinge