On Wednesday 10 April 2002 at about 1435, Cessna 210N Centurion ZK-TWA departed from Dunedin bound for Masterton. The aircraft did not arrive at Masterton, but was not reported overdue until the next day. After a search the aircraft was found on the Friday morning near Conical Peak, 34 km southwest of Oamaru. The aircraft was destroyed and the pilot did not survive.
The aircraft had struck the side of a ridge in an upright attitude, having descended as it approached the ridge, due either to pilot inattention or incapacitation.
A safety issue identified was the late notification of the overdue aircraft because the pilot had not filed a flight plan or organised appropriate flight following. Frequent and recent publicity on the utility of organising adequate flight follow had been made available to all licensed pilots and, consequently, no new safety recommendations were proposed to address this issue
