TWO KILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 31, 7 February 1939, Page 10

TWO KILLED.

CRASH IN MOUNTAINS. SIR G. JULIUS' SON DEAD. TRAGEDY AT AIR PAGEANT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, February 2. A two-seater Taylor Cub 'plane, which left Mascot shortly after eight o'clock on Saturday morning with only four hours' petrol, crashed 11 hours later into a precipice on the Blue Mountains at Megalong Valley, and lay there for two days before It was discovered. Late on Monday a resident noticed a bright object gleaming in the sunshine, and informed the jKilice, who went to the scene and discovered the wreck. They found the 'plane wrecked on a rock wall, rising sheer up to a height of 800 ft. which it could have cleared if it 'had been another 140 ft up. The engine was buried in soft earth and sand, and the tail part of the 'plane wa« hanging perilously on ' a tree growing out from a cliff. Both the cockpits were telescoped. | One of the two occupants of the 'plane. Mr. R. H. Julius* aged 35, is believed to have been killed instantly when the 'plane struck the cliff, but the other, Mr. C. E. Stumbles, aged 32, may have lived for a short time. Mr. Julius was the son of Sir George Julius, inventor of the automatic tote and' head of the Council for Scientific Research. Mr. Stumbles was a director of a suburban theatre circuit, and both were directors of Wings Proprietary, Limited, which began only a few weeks ago to train pilots in Taylor Cub 'planes. Tt appears that they left Mascot on Saturday morning to fly to an air pageant at Orange, although they had been warned of the danger of fog over the Blue Mountains. , No inquiries were made about them because it wa« presumed at Mascot that they had reached Orange, and at Orange that they had been grounded at Mascot by the fog. This has already led to the suggestion that all pilots should be compelled to report their movements at aerodromes when leaving, calling or arriving. Watches Stopped. Their watches had stopped .at 7.20 p.m. and 7.25 p.m. respectively, and a« the watches had not run down it is pre(1 tl'i't the two men crashed to t ;tMi at that time. As they had nn'v four hours' petrol aboard, and no aeropliMie was reported to have refuelled anywhere that day. it is presumed that they landed somewhere and waited several hours for the fog to clear. They must have then continued their, flight, and had apparently given up the attempt to reach Orange, as the wreek was headed in the direction of Sydney. As the tank was smashed, it was impossible to tell whether there had been any fuel in at the time of the crash. The air speed indicator had jammed at 85 miles an hour, indicating that the 'plane wa« travelling fairly fast under power. The throttle lever had been pulled back, from which it might be assumed that the fliers had seen the mountain loom up suddenly in front of them. This suggestion was supported to gome extent by the fact "that one of the men had his arms folded over his face. The Orange air pageant was also marked by another flying tragedy, in which pilot Ernest Buck, of Newcastle, was killed in front of 3000 spectators. Buck was dropping bomb* on a theoretical fort at the aerodrome. The Sydney Aero Club has given up using such bombs, considering them dangerous, but they are still in use in the Air Force.

They consist of a fairly powerful explosive compound with an outride casing of about six sheet* of strong brown paper. From the explosive a six-second fuse extends to the striking head of thp bomb similar to the match head. The bombs are ignited by striking this head on an impregnated board, like the side of a wooden matchbox, which is fastened to the outride of the 'plane. Straight at Crowd. Pilot Buck had released two bombs, and wa« about to let go two others. What happened was described graphically by an eye-witness:— "The 'plane wis about 800 ft up when I heard' first one explosion and then another. The 'plane dived straight at the crowd, and I #aw piece® of it falling to the aground. Everybody was screaming, and some people had put their hands over their faces as they could not bear to see the 'plane coming straight at them.

"But about 400 ft from the ground the pilot zoomed out of the dive and climbed again to 800ft-. There was a great sigh of relief from the people as he turned upwards, but then a shout came again when he slipped off the turn into a left-hand spin.. "It was an agony watching him. He was spinning down in front of u« like a falling leaf, and we knew he was done for. It seemed a year watching him and waiting for K. Tbea. it came;

lie dived into the ground with a terrible crash. There were pieces of the 'plane all over the place." The ambulance was the first to reach the wreck. Buck was alive but unconscious when they lifted liiin front what was left of the 'plane. His right hand had been blown right off by the premature explosion of one of his bombs. \et he had made the desperate and gallant attempt to get his plane away from the crowd an attempt in which he succeeded by of) yards at the cost of his own life. He was shockingly battered and crushed and died in the ambulance 011 the way to the Orange Hospital. Muck, who was chief instructor of the Newcastle Aero Club, was well known

for daring in inverted flying and father spectacular formations. He had frequently used the type of bomb wliich is believed to have caused the crash by exploding prematurely. Between 1925 and 10:t0 ho was well known on broadsiding tracks in Newcastle and Sydney.