On Sunday 18 February 1996 at 1430 hours ZK-FMO, a Piper PA32R-300 Lance, force-landed along a road shortly after take-off on runway 03 at North Shore Aerodrome. One passenger received serious injuries, and the pilot and three other passengers received minor injuries. The cause of the accident was the pilot's attempt to take-off with insufficient runway length available, for the prevailing conditions and the weight of the aircraft.
[The following paragraph was added by addenda finalised on 5 August 1998.]
However the possibility existed that, in addition to the above factors, a misaligned contact breaker arm on the right hand magneto resulted in some reduction in power which may have been the final factor leading to the accident.
