At about 1520 hours on Saturday 16 March 1996, Cessna 172 ZK-CGE took off from Mandeville Aerodrome on a private flight to Big Bay. The aeroplane did not gain sufficient altitude after take-off to clear a line of willow trees some 500 m from the departure end of the runway, and collided with the trees, killing the pilot. The three passengers sustained minor injuries. The aeroplane was found to have been operated at a weight 136 kg in excess of the maximum permitted all-up weight, which degraded the take-off performance sufficiently to cause the collision with the trees.
