PLANE CRASHES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 309, 30 December 1940, Page 8

PLANE CRASHES.

TWO MEN KILLED. CHILDREN'S ESCAPE. TERRIFIC IMPACT. (P.A.) P.\LMKRSTOX X.. this day. Two men were killed when an Airspeed Oxford training machine from Ohakca. crashed through the middle, of a. two-storey wooden house on the Siberia, property ot" Mr. C. B. Kebbell, near Ashhiirst, at the entrance to the Manawatu Gorge this morning'. The victims were: — Sergeant R. Brooke-Taylor, aged 25. instructor, formerly of ('liristchurch. His wife is living at 290, Madras Street, (.'liristchurch.

Leading Aircraftsman T. A. H. Alexan der 2ii, trainee, nearing the close oi his period at Ohakea. He caint from Kohukohu. Xorth Auckland.

Both men were killed instantly. The. machine hit' the house square-on at the caves, passing right through if. The plane disintegrated to a remarkable degree.

One engine and the tangled weckage of the cockpit came to rest 100 yards from the dwelling. The other engine was about 50 yards further on in a creek at the bottom of a gully. The bodies of both men were still strapped in their seats near the wrecked cockpit.

About 10 minutes before the plane crashed the four children of Mr. and Mrs. Kebbell, one of them a baby, were in the nursery with their nurse, Miss M. Champion, and the macjiine went straight through the nursery, leaving nothing but a square gaping hole. The floor was littered with broken boards and small debris. Practically everything in the room was swept clear and deposited from the front steps of the house to 100 yards away with pieces of the plane. The children and 'their nurse were having breakfast on one side of the house on the ground floor. Mr. and Mi*. Kebbells were in the breakfast room on the other side. There were otlher persons in this area also, and tJlie machine passed through the residence squarely between the two groupsTliere were six adults and four children in the house or in the buildings inimedia/tely adjacent. One woman was in the waeflihouse, and one end of the gable was rijpped off this building. Just before the machine crashed into the house itself two persons saw the plane approach and witnessed the. smash. They were Mr. M. J. Murphy, a shareinilker, engaged on the property, and his son, Maurice, aged 18. They said the machine was approaching from the direction of Levin, flying towards the gorge to the right of Mr. Kebbell's home when it turned to the left. Both thought it might hit the cow bails, but it missed these, then misaed some power ■wires. While still banked to turn the plane ( hit- the house. \ There was a terrific impact. Both_gaid it was just like an explosion, and then all was over.