SIX KILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 171, 22 July 1930, Page 7

SIX KILLED.

TITLED VICTIMS. air taxi crashes. British Nobility in Gruesome Disaster. SHAMBLES IN AN ORCHARD. (United P.A.-Electric Telegraph-Copyright) (Received 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 21. A British air taxi from Le Touquet, France, crashed near Gravesend. Four men and two women were killed. Villagers at Moepliarn, near Gravesend, gaw the big aeroplane wobbling badly as it approached from the Channel in pouring rain. An explosion ocourred and pieces of wreckage came floating down, tlie machine crashing into an orchard. The passengers were prominent members of society and all were killed instantly. The victims were:— The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava. Sir Edward Ward. Viscountess Ednam. Mrs. Henrik Loeffler. The pilot, Colonel G. Henderson. The setfond pilot, Mr. C. Shearing. The machine was an all-metal Junker belonging to Colonel Henderson, of the Flying Bureau, lent to the Walcot Air Lines°in order to cope with the pressure on the service. The five bodies were terribly mutilated when found in the orchard. Colonel Henderson lay nearby still ' strapped in the pilot's seat, but lie expired as the rescuers arrived. Tho main part of the fuselage, with one wing attached, fell into the garden of a bungalow. The engine crashed on the drive of an adjoining house. One wing fluttered down two miles away and other parts were widely scattered. The petrol tanks' were picked up in--1 tact, which, with the absence of signs of fire, makes it difficult to account for the reports that an explosion occurred. Ghastly Spectacle. The orchard presented a ghastly spectacle. Parts of .the bodies were strewn in- all directions,, rendering identification most difficult.* The Walcot Air Lines operated the air taxi service from' Croydon. The Junker machine had, earlier In the day, crossed to Le Touquet and brought one party to Croydon and had then set off again to fetch Lord Dufferin and his friends. The crash occurred on the return journey. Flying conditions had been extremely difficult throughout the day. Lord Dufferin, one of the victims, who was 55, was the first Speaker of the Senate of Northern Ireland, having held the post since 1921. He had a distinguished Army career, as had also Sir Edward Ward, who, during the war, was a captain in the Grenadier Guards. Viscountess Ednam was a sister of the Duke of Sutherland and wife of the heir to Earl Dudley. She and Mrs. Loeffler, another victim, were promineut figures in London social life.

Mrs. Loeffier was a well-known West End hostess. She often entertained the Prince of Wales. She was returning from a party at Le Touquet, where she entertained among, others, Colonel Piersleigh, the Prince of Wales' equerry.