AIR CRASH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 288, 5 December 1932, Page 3

AIR CRASH.

PILOT IN HOSPITAL.

'PLANE WRECKED AT PAGEANT

SPECTATORS HORRIFIED. (Bγ Telegraph.—Press Association.) PALMERSTON NORTH, this day. When Squadron-Leader McGregor crashed at the Manawatu Aero Club's pageant at the Milaou aerodrome on Saturday afternoon, the famous airman received severe head and back injuries, the full extent of which has not yet been ascertained. He is in hospital on the seriously ill list, and hit, condition to-day is unchanged.

When the mishap occurred the airman was engaged in a balloon bursting competition. A balloon, driven by a tricky wind, was pursued. It was 120 feet up, and Squadron-Leader McGregor apparently put the machine into a short dive and a half roll with the intention of catching the balloon on the propeller as ho rose. To the horror of the crowd the machine went into a flat dive, skimmed a barbed wire fence by a narrow margin, and landed in a field near the aerodrome.

_ The high speed of the 'plane at the time of the impact threw it along the ground 20 yards before coining to rest. The pilot was bleeding profusely from a large gash in the head and another across an eye. and was removed to hospital immediately. The wings of the machine were crumpled, the propeller splintered, and the under carriage totally wrecked.

Squadron-Leader Wilkes, Director of Air Services, yesterday held a formal inquiry. The accident has caused a severe loss to the Manawatu Aero Club, which Is without a 'plane at a time when a large number of pupils are bein« trained. - "