TWO AIRMEN KILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 28, 1 February 1913, Page 17

TWO AIRMEN KILLED.

FALL ON A GOLF LINKS

An accident at Wembley on December 15 cost the lives of two English airmen. Lieutenant Wilrreti I'arke. of the Koyal Navy, one of the best-known of British pilots, and Mr. Arkell Hardwlck. of the Ilandlcy-I'age Aeronautical Company.

The airmen left Ilendon shortly after 11.3f>, Intending to fly lo Oxford in a Iland-ley-I'age monoplane, the wings of which are set back In a shape like those of a pigeon, to increase stability. The wind was blowing strongly from the south-west. The engine appeared to be failing as the machine approached the Wembley golf links. The aeroplane dropped down to a height of about 1-lOft. The players watching It expected it to descend near the fourteenth green, where the ground slopes gently upwards. But. flying over this still very low. Lieutenant I'arke came full into a stiff gust ot wind when near a line of trees running along tbe fairway to the sixteenth green. He turned into the wind to escape the trees, nnd then tried to turn again. The monoplane dropped suddenly to the ground. A loud explosion followed. A caddie looking for a lost ball saw the monoplane above his bead. It missed 'him py three yards as it fell. Lieutenant I'arke was killed Instantly, his head, though protected by a helmet, being crushed. Mr. Hardwlck, one of whose legs was almost cut off. and whose back was partly broken, lived for twenty minutes after the accident. A CADDIE'S ACCOUNT. There were some sixty golfers on the links, and they rushed towards the machine. The aeroplane was a mass of wreckage. Strapped to their seats were the two men, with their heads hanging down. The golfers failed at first, to extrfcate Lhem. They tilted the machine over on its side, and were then able to get the airmen clear and plac* them on the grass. Two doctors arrived, and the bodies were taken on stretchers over the links to the Wembley mortuary. Thomas Siiirli, the caddie who was looking for a lost ball within three yards of where the monoplane fell, said: "I heard a buzzing noise and saw the aeroplane right above my head. I did not think It was coming down, and 1 stood still and stared. I could see the man in front working at something with his bands, bnt I could not see his face. Then I suddenly saw the machine begin to drop quickly and I ran away —only just lv time, for It fell where I had been standing." Lieutenant Parke was only twenty-four years old, but had a long record of crosscountry flying in various types of machine. He was slight in physique aud weighed only Sst, a fact which helped him to escape from numerous accidents. lie was the hero of a wonderful escape in mid-air on August 2_ on Salisbury Plain, when his biplane dived vertically towards the earth fromTCOft and was only righted when 60ft from the ground. lie carried his "mascot," a shark's tooth, in his pocket during the fatal flight-

Mr. Arkell Hardwlck, aged thirty-five, had escaped death so often that he used to remark that he was too lucky to be killed In an aeroplane. Leaving home when only fourteen years of age, he went to sea and served before the mast in all the oceans. On one voyase to America he was washed overboard, but was saved. After working in Canada he went to Japan, and then retamed to England. He joined the Mashonaland Police, and afterwards fought throughout the Boer War. His quiet humour and unvarying good humour made him exceedingly popular. lie leaves a widow.