NEARLY 54 years after a plane went missing between Christchurch and Milford Sound, two groups are still searching for it on either side of the South Island.

It was 12 February 1962 when pilot Brian Chadwick took off on a scenic flight in his Dragonfly, never to be seen again.

He had four passengers on the flight: Louis Rowan, Darrell Shiels and newly-wed couple Elwyn and Valerie Saville, all from Australia.

Despite one of the most extensive aerial searches in New Zealand history, the plane was never found.

Richard Waugh, whose father was good friends with the pilot, documented the flight and the mystery surrounding it in a book, Lost Without Trace: Brian Chadwick & the Missing Dragonfly.

It was one of the biggest aviation mysteries in New Zealand, he said.

“I remember as a young boy, my father talking about it, he spent years looking for his friend and the plane.”

It is Mr Waugh’s book that has sparked people’s interest and led them into the bush in a bid to find the plane.

Filmmaker Bobby Reeve and his family have been looking for the Dragonfly for eight years, filming their efforts as they go.