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 of the airstrip.
The eight passengers and the pilot all seemed to have died instantly, the Director of Civil Aviation, Mike Varley, said.
Police stood guard over the crash and bodies were brought out by helicopter to Bua, then by fixed-wing transported by plane to Suva.
The crash was the first fatal civil aviation disaster in Fiji.
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.
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.
After hearing a broadcast asking Bua people to help with the search, villagers set out and found the wreck on Saturday, July 14.
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.
The helicopter crew confirmed that all aboard the Islander were dead, Mr Varley said.
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’s 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.
