TRAGIC "STUNT."

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 78, 2 April 1928, Page 7

TRAGIC "STUNT."

Delivery Of Movie Film By Aeroplane. LADY PILOT DECEIVED.

LONDON, April 1. A remarkable story of a tragic advertising "stunt" was told at the inquest into the death of a boy who was struck by an aeroplane at Stalybridge, Cliesire.

Winifred Brown, the pilot, said she did not know the flight was an advertising "stunt," though it was an urgent matter. She was surprised,.when over the landing field, to se« a crowd below. Until then she never doubted the assurance of the passenger, William Browning, that the field was suitable for landing. When she reached the ground and realised that she could not pull up before colliding with the crowd she adopted the only possible course and tried to take off again, but the 'plane struck a wall. Browning, a film salesman, said the object of the flight was to secure publicity for a film that was to be shown at Stalybridge. It was decided to deliver it on Sunday, so that a crowd would collect, but there was nothing in the box.

The coroner: You were deluding the public? Browning: Yes: We did not consider it safe to carry a celluloid film in an aeroplane. He added that he saw 2000 people on the field. He was a certificated pilot and had previously chosen the landing field which he thought suitable. Miss Brown knew nothing about the 'stunt." The coroner said he could exonerate Miss Brown. She had been told a deliberate lie, that the journev had to be urgently made, whereas there was no film in the box. It was difficult to understand Browning's qualification to choose a landing ground. His flvins experience was that of a mere novice A verdict of death by misadventure was returned. (A. and N.Z. and Sydney "Sun.") SrC"™ a"-"