FIRST LANDING

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 241, 29 July 1950, Page 5

FIRST LANDING

N.Z. PLANE AT DON MUANG (N.Z.P.A. Correspondent) (By Air Mail.) BANGKOK (Thailand), July 13. The first aircraft of No. 41 (Transport) Squadron and almost certainly the first of the Royal New Zealand Air force to land at Don Muang, airport of Thailand’s capital, arrived yesterday after a five-hour journey from Singapore. The aircraft, NZ 3552, and its allNew Zealand crew, was given at short notice the assignment carrying to Bangkok a replacement engine for an aircraft used by the British Air Attache there, Group Captain J, N. H. Whitworth, D. 5.0., D.F.C., and bar, R.A.F., and this officer, returning from leave, was also a passenger in the New Zealand’ Dakota. Aboard the New Zealand plane, whose, distinctive squadron marking caused interest among both Siamese people and foreign airline operators, was an augmented crew. It consisted of Squadron Leader J. C. Murray, officer commanding 41 Squadron, who flew as second pilot, Flight Lieutenant L. J. McLean, captain and officer commanding the New. Zealand detachment in Malaya, Flight lieutenant G. V. Groves, wireless operator, Flying Officer A. D. Cross, navigator, and Eng. 11, A. Poden, flight engineer. There were also passengers. “Kiwi” is a term that has. passed into the Siamese language, or at least among Bangkok residents, for they have not yet forgotten the amazing display, given in a Vampire jet fighter, by a New Zealander .serving with the Royal Air Force, Flight Lieutenant “Kiwi” Francis, D.F.C. and bar. This officer, who put a Vampire through its paces in Bangkok last year, is vividly remembered, and the new Kiwis were therefore enjoying a measure of reflected glory. Squadron Leader Murray, who is making a tour of inspection of the detachment of his unit in Malaya; was received this morning by the British Charge d’Affaires, Mr R. Whittington, and is a guest to dinner this evening at the home of the Belgian Minister, M. Louis Deskill. All the visiting New Zealanders were entertained at lunch to-day by Group Captain and Mrs Whitworth; the fact that the gardener found a krait, one of the local venomous snakes, just after lunch, was passed off with all possible aplomb.