CRASH IN JAPAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 193, 17 August 1931, Page 7

CRASH IN JAPAN.

CHICHESTEE DOWN.

Serious Mishap En Route to

Tokyo.

'PLANE BADLY SMASHED.

(United P.A.-Electric Telegraph-Copyright)

TOKYO, August 16,

The New Zealand airman, Mr. F. C. Chichester, when starting on the last lap of his flight to Tokyo from Katsuura on Friday at 9 a.m., encountered difficulties in an attempt to take off from the water, and after a struggle of 50 minutes to rise, failed to clear an electric cable.

The machine crashed into a stone embankment and the airman wae seriously injured in the head, eye, chest and thighs. He was unconscious for three hours.

The airman will be laid up for several weeks, but the doctors at the hospital in the neighbouring town of Shingu, where he was taken by train, report that he will recover. The Government Aviation Bureau has sent offici&k and doctors to care for him.

The townsfolk, who rushed out to extricate the airman from his aeroplane, which was badly damaged, described how he vainly struggled against the wind, which drove him low over the cliffs near to the water. There he encountered a cable, which caught a wing of his machine.

The stone fence which his machine struck was at the Hot Spring Hotel. Mr. Chichester was pinned to the ground by the machine, which was completely wrecked.

The townsfolk carried him to a local doctor and at noon he was removed to Lhingu Hospital, where it was found that his injuries were not- so serious as wae at first thought. The lacerations, it is expected, will heal within a month.

The airman i, in good spirits and says he will continue his flight to Britain via the Arctic as soon as he has recovered. The Governor of the Prefecture has been instructed to render all assietance.

The chief of the Aeronautic Bureau states that Mr. Chichester's machine is useless for further flight.

FATAL 'PLANE CRASH. AIRMAN KILLED IN VICTORIA. (Received 10.30 a.m.) MELBOURNE, this day. Mr. William Rolfe was killed when his aeroplane nosedived and crashed from a height of 1000 feet at Rainbow. The collapse of the wings wae responsible for the crash.

EXTENDED FLIGHT.

LINDBERGH'S INTENTION.

NOME (Alaska), August 16.

Colonel Lindbergh landed at Karagin Island at 10.45 p.m. on Friday and took off again at 5.55 p.m. yesterday for Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, en route to Japan. Heavy static over the North Pacific was reported at 8.15 p.m. yesterday by the St. Paul Naval Radio Station, which prevented any contact with Colonel Lindbergh.

About four hours earlier Mrs. Lindbergh had sent a radio message saying they would be in the air within a few minutes, but no further contact was established to confirm the take-off.

Colonel Lindbergh intends to extend his present flight, and will go round the world.

FLYING OVER FORTRESS.

AMERICANS FINED IN JAPAN.

TOKYO, August Iβ,

A message from Kobe says the two American airmen, Messrs. Pangborn and Herndon, after nine days of interrogation were each fined £205 for flying against regulations over and taking photographs of fortifications. Their machine was not confiscated, but permission to take off for America wae refused.