AIR CRASH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 48, 26 February 1937, Page 9

AIR CRASH.

ON U.S. MOUNTAIN.

THIRTEEN VICTIMS.

ONE KILLED OUTRIGHT.

RESCUES IN SNOWSTORM,

LOS AN'*!KI„KS, Jan. 20.

In a blinding, stinging snowstorm eleven of the thirteen victims of the Western Air Kx press transjMirt crash were carted by mule team and tractor down slithery mountain trails to hospitals in I»s Angeles region.

A twelfth victim already had been ' given treatment at Olive View Sana-1 torium, after bringing the first crv for' help, and the thirteenth—lames \ Braden, of Cleveland, 0., the onlv person killed in the crash—lay in a San Fernando mortuary. Until the rescue parties, after battling with nature for hours, reached the tiny' forestry lookout atop the hi- liest peak in the Sierra Madre range, the casualties were huddled under blankets, receiving emergency treatment for fractured skulls\ legs, arms and internal injuries. Included in the injured were Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson, African explorers and big game hunters, en route to I'asadena for a speaking engagement. Pilot Tell« Cause. Kach suffered a fractured leg arid Johnson is believed toj have sustained a fractured skull and internal injuries. In explaining the cause of the crash, Pilot William L. ]x>wis, who refused to leave his plane until all his passengers had lieen given medical aid, told invest igators that wo many voices came over the radio broadcast of weather conditions that he could not interpret these issued for him. "While trying to interpret the weather warnings the hill suddenly loomed out of the fog in front of us and we crashed." All the passengers were strapped in their seats when Lewis pancaked his plane 011 the mountainside. 100 feet below Los Pinetos ranger station lookout.

While Arthur S. Robinson, his foot broken, staggered and crawled along the five-mile trail leading to Olive View Sanatorium appealing for help, Esther Jo Conner, stewardess, limped about the plane with a broken ankle, performing her duties courageously.

When the rescue party from the hos pita), headed by Drs. Paxton, Cook and E. S. Bennett, arrived two hours after the crash, it was the stewardess who threw open the door of the transj>ort cabin and called thsm. Doctors and nurses carried the injured and dead from the fuselage and the wounded were lifted 100 feet up the steep mountainside to the lookout station—a small circular glass house occupied during the summer months. Delirious with Pain. Huddled together in the cubicle, the eleven injured passengers, several of them delirious and groaning with pain, were given what meagre treatment could be administered under the circumstances. In the meantime news of the crash liad reached Sheriff Biscailuz, who took charge of the rescue work from the NewI hall Sheriff's sub-station. He dispatched a flat wagon drawn by a six-mule team up Whitney Canyon trail, loaded with blankets and food.

Up the steeper trail leading from Olive View Sanatorium a tractor and trailer slowly climbed over icy rocks and through streams of mud to the scene of the wreck.

Eight of the victims later were moved down the precipitous foot trail to the trailer and, made as comfortable as possible on piles of blankets and pads, wire started down the tortuous deer path to Olive View surgery.

The other three injured were loaded on the wagon, wrapped in blankets and laboriously lowered into the valley behind the ponderous but sure-footed mule*. In N'ewhall ambulances were waiting to take them to hospital.

While wait in? for the rescue parties to arrive, doctors administered lurjjc quantities of morphine and sedative* to the ajronised victims of the wreek.

Because there was no heating apparatus in the look-out, which for many hours was used as a rppeivinj; hospital, paeh patient was blankete<l to ward off the rtiill wind which whittled and moaned about the crest of the |>eak. Robinson, although injured. stumbled blindly away from the wrpek and ramp across a sijrn bearing thp word* "Olive View Sanatorium. 4J miles." Gasps for Help. Stajrprennp: to an outlying ponvale*cent ward. Robinson eollajwed in a doorway and frat-ped: '"(Jet help up there for the twelve others. It wa* a forced landing—they're all injured, but I believe they're all alive."'

Robinson bore numerous cuts on hi* face iiixl arms and h deep Ulceration on his left ley. He \va« placed in a surprical ward for Surgeon* said they did not believe lie had suffered internal injuries.

The 'piano whs due at Cnion air tormiiml from Salt Lake City at 10.4."> a.m. La*t word from it wa« at 11.05 a.m.. when the pilot rodiood "( omiii'.' down to localizer at field." referring to the field's radio directional beam.

It was almost within ,1 i-t a in* of the field when the crash occurred.

A vivid storv of how the era-h became known was told by Mrs. F.-iv-\etto tlossard, secretary to Superintendent Will. "I*oj;or Pollard. Ift y«*ars of i»m«* of 28 patients in Ward 121. first heard tlie cries." she said. Screami for Help. "There's an aeroplane crash, and it sounded like it was just outside the window," he reported to the nurses. I heard a frreat crash and then the cries of many people." "Other patients in the ward iiNo reported thev heard the crash and screams for help.

"We found no si<;n of a clash in the immediate vicinity of the cotta-jc. Imt the mountains hack of the sanitarium are higli and sound travels well. Wo started chi-ikiny at once.

"A party of doctors and nur-e-. and men went into the hills.

'•Meanwhile we found liy telephone that an air transport was mi~ — ill^. and this confirmed the storie. of the put ients.

" I lie 'pintle was found four miles no in the hills I •»<•!< of the sani'iirinm. It i- st that the erics should have carried so far. Imt sound travels well in the mountain eoiuitrv."

Esther .lo Conner, pretty stewardess, who. despite a fractured ankle and other severe injuries, administered lirs; aid to in jured of the wrecked >« • i - liner, described the crash in the follow in-.-Merwint, dictated from her hospital l.ed:

"We were coming down over the mount sin and had been strapped in for several minutes. Kvervthiiig was going along smoothly. except lliat we were breasting very heavy enow. No Warning. "There wasn't tin- slightest bit of warning that anything wit* g"ing to hap|H'ii. as we sat there joking. 1 don't even recall hearing or feeling the crash. There simply was a sudden blank. The next thing—there we were, ami I «n> standing hv a window. The erash had knocked ine out of my slides. "I don't know liow I reached the window, and I don't remember Mr. Iwibiusnii lifting another passenger otr my legs hi I could get up. as they tell me he did. "Some of the passengers w ln> lunl liecn joking with me a minute .lie fore were lying spraw led in the aisle. Oilier* were still in their seats, pu-hed uji (Or ward and against each other. Very Quiet. "For just a little while it was very ipiiet — t lieu they all ticgiin to scrcnni. I here wasn't, so very much that. I could do, but I made the passengers cunifortalile as mucli as 1 could do with tnv I leg hurting me. There really wasn't anything more to do then, except to unit until the doctors arrived. Wo really didn't stiller so much during 0111 I ' I hours on the mountain, and we didn't notice the cold so much. ihe real sutlering came when we were on our way down the mountain trail in the truck and mule whroiim- -it seemed every little vibration, everv hump and jolt, hurt, the passengers. Now and then, bouncing down that trail with onlv the light from a hlue searchlight l>eam to show that they were readv for us down Mow, the injured men would scream out."