AEROPLANE CRASHES INTO HOUSE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXI, Issue 10922, 23 September 1932, Page 3

AEROPLANE CRASHES INTO HOUSE

Accident Near Wellington WELL-KNOWN PILOT SEVERELY INJURED. Wellington, Sept. 22 While returning from the air pageant at Levin this morning a Wellington Moth aeroplane piloted by Arnaud H. de Tourettes, accompanied by Lewis Taylor, a well-known pilot, crashed into a house at Johnsonville and was totally destroyed by fire. Mr Taylor was seriously injured and is now in the Bowen Street Private Hospital. Mr de Tourettes escaped with slight scratches and shock. Messrs Ernest George Pledger and J. Crammer, who went to the rescue of the airmen, were burnt on the hands and head.

The airmen were flying a De Havillaud Moth, the property of the Wellington Aero Club, of which they are members. They left Levin between a quarter and half-past seven in the morning and were flying against a light southerly on a bright spring morning. The conditions were perfect. The journey was one of a little over sixty ipiles. Everything went well until just after eight o’clock when they reached Johnsonville, where, for some reason as yet unknown, the aeroplane flew very low. It circled twice in the locality of the west side of the station, gradually getting lower. The right wing struck the top of a power line pole in Ballauce Street. The machine then apparently became entangled in the power and telephone lines, swung sharply to the right, and crashed into the residence of Mr V. A. Mills. Mr de Tourettes succeeded in freeing himself almost immediately and was endeavouring to release Mr Taylor, who was strapped in the front seat, when Messrs Pledger and Crammer arrived on the scene. With their assistance, Mr Taylor was rescued from the cockpit, which was like a furnace. He was badly burned on the head, hands, body and legs. The Johnsonville Fire Brigade attended and in a few minutes extinguished the flames. All the fuselage, wings and body of the aeroplane were destroyed, the engine was wrecked, and all that remained of the machine was a tangled mass of metal and wires.

. Piecing together the statements of many eye-witnesess it appears that engine trouble developed as the machine was passing over Johnsonville, and the airmen sought to effect a landing. At first the Recreation Ground was aimed at, but by this time the machine was so low that there would have been grave risk of running into one of the high trees in front of the reserve. The machne then circled to find another suitable spot and turned toward the children's playground at the school opposite the end of Ballance Street. A large number of children had assembled in the playground and It is conjectured that the pilot therefore tried to effect a landing in an empty section in Ballance Street or in the street itself, rather than risk injury to the children. But for the unluckyaccident of striking the power pole the machine, it is believed, would have landed without much damage.

Mr Arnaud de Tourettes, who is on the staff of the Bank of New Zealand at Wellington, is well known in Tauranga, his parents, Mr and the late Mrs A. H. de Tourettes, having resided here for some years, Mr de Tourettes being a member of the staff of the Post and Telegraph Department.