MOTH 'PLANE CRASHES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 243, 14 October 1929, Page 10

MOTH 'PLANE CRASHES.

PILOT ALMOST UNHURT. FORCED LANDING IN FIELD. . MACHINE CAPSIZES IN ROUGH. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. A Moth 'plane capsized in a ploughed paddock in Sprevdon at 11 o'clock yesterday morning and was wrecked. Its pilot, Captain Noel Vale, was slightly injured. Tlio 'plane's engine stalled and a forced landing had to be made. Captain Vale might have landed in Barrington Park, but there were children playing there and he made for the paddock on the other side of the road. An eye witness, Mr. J. McDowell, eays that the Moth, which belonged to the Canterbury Aero Club, was stunting about a mile away and had just come out of a loop when the engine appeared to stall, for the propellor stopped completely. The pilot was running with an easterly wind and he was unable to gain height. Making for the paddock on the other side of Barrington Park, he just cleared the telegraph wires. He made a good landing 011 the grass, but the machine ran 011 to the ploughed part and turned over. The propeller blades were snapped off short and the wings and fuselage crumpled up. Luckily the wreckage did not catch fire, although tlie machine was lying upside down, giving the petrol an opportunity to escape on to the hot engine and exhaust pipe. Hundreds of people rushed out from nearby houses and ran to the wreck. Captain \ ale was quickly extricated and he at once communicated with the aerodrome at Sockburn. He was treated at the out-patients' department of the hospital for a cut over one of his eyes. rJS,! ' plai ] e l was a D - H - Moth, a fairlv hours m °a f nd llad only 150 hmns Aerodrome officials arrived o £ tn°! T with iack saw s and fAUure. There a "•rent mav. c hunters, men and girls SoUvun

Airmen say Captain Vale, wlio is an experienced Air Force pilot, now a reservist, made a skilful landing, for tlie paddock is a small one. The capsize was inevitable. Spectators warmly praised his quick decision to risk his own life rather than .land in the park, where almost certainly the machine would have struck some of the children.