SEVENTY HOURS' AGONY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 36, 12 February 1925, Page 5

SEVENTY HOURS' AGONY.

GRIPPED BY FALLEN ROCKS. TERRIBLE MINE TRAGEDY. SAX FRAXCISCO, February 2. At Louisville, Kentucky, Floyd Collins, aged 35, was caught by a cave-in 300 feet from the surface of a granite quarry, and one leg was firmly held by the rocks. Rescuers squirmed their way in, feeding him with sandwiches and coffee. At noon, after he had suffered this torture for 70 hours, he begged his friends to tie a rope round his shoulders and drag him out by force, unmindful of whether his leg was pulled off. Collins' brothers finally offered £100 reward if any surgeon would crawl in and amputate the leg. Finally a doctor was obtained, and lowered 80 feet in a basket. He squirmed on his stomach to where Colling , head emerged from the constantly falling gravel. He was too far gone, however, and perished while the doctor was working over him.

CROYDON AIR SMASH. NO ONE TO BLAME. LONDON, February 11. The report of the investigation by the Air Ministry into the Cro3'don aeroplane disaster on Christmas Eve says that no Air Ministry or Imperial Airways official was in any way negligent, and no blamo is attributable to the pilot. The dive earthward was due to loss of control combined with a "stall." While the pilot was trying to make a forced landing some defect developed, but there was nothing to show whether this was in the engine or its installation. This was not the primary cause of the accident, but may have been contributory.— (Reuter.)