PILOT KILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 308, 30 December 1933, Page 9

PILOT KILLED.

ESSEX TRAGEDY. . ■, . ■ ~. . . N.Z. FLYING OFFICER. 'Plane Nosedives Into Potato Field. ENGINE DEVELOPS FAULT, (United P.A,— Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, December 29. Flying Officer Ronald Rowley, Murphy, aged 25, formerly of Tokoraaru Bay, New Zealand, was killed at Shenfleld, Essex, owing to a crash in the course of a solo flight in a Bulldog aeroplane during manoeuvres from the Hornchurch aerodrome.

Forty minutes after starting the machine unaccountably nosedived into soft earth in a potato field, causing an explosion and catapulting Flying Officer Murphy and the engine 300 yards into the next field. The body of the pilot was not recognisable and the aeroplane was a tangle of twisted metal, containing the airman's helmet and hoots. An eye-witness said that Flying Officer Murphy's 'plane and another machine were flying together when Murphy's engine began spitting, swooped and crashed. The other pilot, owing to low visibility, apparently was unaware. of the disaster and flew back to the aerodrome.

FROM EAST COAST. OLD CHRIST COLLEGE BOY. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) GISBORXE, this day. Flying Officer Ronald Murphy, who is reported to have been killed, was the third son of the late Mr. Rowley Murphy. He was 25 years old and was educated at Christ's College, Christchurch. He went Home in 1931 to join the Royal Air Force.