60-FEET FLAMES.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18266, 27 December 1924, Page 11

60-FEET FLAMES.

'PLANE DESTROYED IN TEN MINUTES. gESCUERS UNABLE TO SAVE AIR PASSENGERS. (JT CABLE—rBBSS association— coptriohi) (reutee's TELEGRAM 3.) ■LONDON, December 24. The aeroplane which crashed at Croydon this morning, killing the | pilot and eight passengers, had just , started for Paris at noon when it crashed, about half a mile from the starting point, nose downwards, the front of the engine burying itself in Ahe ground. Tho petrol tank then burst and the petrol caught fire. The flames quickly spread to the body and wings. A crowd rushed to the depot to help, but the heat was so intense that no one was able to approach tho 'plane, rhich waa reduced to ashes within ten :gunutes. The machine, a de Haviland. of 400 ■ hp., belonged to Imperial Airways, ■—'Ltd., a combination of British firms ■: formed early in the year to work tho <v air-transport services with the Conv ■ tmenfc. I f When the fire broke out all the pasgangers werG probably unconscious, if j . dot dead. Tho tail of tho 'plane tilted np eo high that all were thrown ia a j :i heap with such force that the marks aod injuries which tho bodies bear can- . not he accounted for otherwise. ? STALLED LOW IN AIR. ' ' (iBBnULIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) £•'.». LONDON, December 23. 1 /The midday air express had only just risen from tho aerodrome when it geemed to 6tall and, as it was too j to recover, crashed heavily nose % foremost on Russell Hill at Purley. Directly tho machine touched the C.ground, tho petrol tank appeared to JTjexplocle. Tho flames roso 80 feet in Hloight, and in a few minutes the whole Ikof the wreckage was ablaze. From the Riieginning there was no hope of rescuIfing the unfortunate passengers inside, although the fir® brigades reached tho within six minutes. if:. Rescue Party Driven Back. Hp'-The first rescuers were a number of Iprorknien from a neighbouring builds Bang;. who rushed up with axes. On© |||j#ian, named Pooley, with a scaifolder's tsfnammer, tried to split the cabin open mpn order to get at the passengers, but, railrith the strong wind blowing, the aprorkmen wero driven back, nlißescuers saw tho pilot lying on j&ltts face, with his body stretched across »j|he engine. They tried to got a rope B|imr a leg to drag his body away, msjit the heat prevented them, though MjlpfrT. tried over and over again. The SPescuers finally got a rope through the j ®pndercarriage and, as they pulled it, Sgii horrible spectacle was disclosed. BC; When the crash came the passengers «Md evidently been flung into tho foreSffaont of the cabin, with such violence |||hai they wero seriously injured. ConKftquently it is hoped that they were Mfet conscious when the fire broke out. rafji;,When the undercarriage was dragged |||ifyay, (seven bodies were seen huddled As the bottom of the cabin Ktyned and fell out, the bodies of two Mfelfaen and four men dropped to the lippttund. Their clothes were "burned off iiptfl their bodies wero blackened. fij*' Woman's Terrible Death. |jp On® woman appeared to be just fe&v®, though terribly burned from the KWaist upward, hut she was dead beforo feihe doctor arrived'. She seemed to be Ip'lujgging some parcel, possibly a Christ»*nus gift. |t Two of the dead men wero named and wero well-known in the plater .world. Another was a youth named Luxembury, who recently left S,(n St. Paul's School, and who wanted a i' v tft!iday iri Paris. J' Stewart, the pilot, had. a fin© war record. Ho won the Military Cross v land bar. He had the reputation of '" jheing a, highly skijled pilot. *■ The machine was tested just before ' tf.its departure, and seemed to bo in per- . ; f*ct condition. ><\ NAVAL DISASTER. • * k PATIENT AND AMBULANCE CREW LOST. . 1 fe- ■ (atrsisAuus usd zr.z. cablb association.) : ■ (Received December 36th, 7.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, Deoember 25. - Four lives were lost in a remarkable karoplane accident at Norfolk (Virginia). A naval ambulance seaplane was ; bringing to hospital a man named ilI lifctos, a Coastguard, who was suffering • from pneumonia- As the 'piano strucs the water it went under and Williams was drowned. Then as the two naval officers, Keyser and Mainwaring, and the hospital attendant, Gavin, oommeaoed to swim, the propellors, which were still revolving, caught them ana all were killed.