AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 126, 29 May 1937, Page 14

AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS.

INQUIRY INTO RECENT CASES. FINDINGS OF INSPECTOR. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The Minister of Defence, the Hon. F. Jones, announced to-day that it was desirable that the public should knowthat all aircraft accidents are subject to inqufry by the Air Department. Every accident is investigated immediately by the inspector of accidents, and his report is submitted to the Minister. From this report it is decided whether a further inquiry is neeessary. In future it is the intention to release the main facts of these reports 'for publication. | Reporting on the accident to the Otago Aero Club's machine which crashed near Taieri aerodrome on March 26, the pilot ; being killed, the inspector of accidents j considers that the cause of the accident cannot be definitely determined, but tliat the evidence suggests as the most likely cause that in the course of spinning manoeuvres in which he engaged, the pilot, through an error of judgment or temporary dizziness, permitted the aircraft to dive and reach a speed at which it was impossible to gain control in the height available. In the case in which the West Coast United Aero Club's Moth aeroplane crashed into the sea near Greymouth aerodrome on April 11, the inspector has arrived at the following conclusions: (a) That the aircraft was in an airworthy condition prior to and during the flight; (b) that misuse of the rudder control during a steep turn resulted in the machine going into a dive at too low a height in which to regain control; (c) that the pilot, in executing steep turns at such a low height, wa« taking unnecessary risks; (d) that the accident must be attributed solely to poor technique on the part of the pilot in matters of airmanship.