AN AEROPLANE STOLEN

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21146, 23 April 1934, Page 12

AN AEROPLANE STOLEN

v Crash Near Mangere Aerodrome TWO MEN ARRESTED 'JRESS ASSOCIATION' TEt.EtiUAM.) AUCKLAND, April 21. A Moth aeroplane was stolen from a hangar at Mangere Aerodrome about 4 a.m. to-day. It crashed, and was found after daylight in the estuary on the fringe of the flying field. There were blood marks in the cockpit and footprints in the mud for some distance round the edge of the estuary. Two young men suspected of being implicated in the removal of the aeroplane weie arrested at Papatoetoc, not far from the aerodrome, to-night. They will appear in court on Monday. It is believed that two young men who were seen at the aerodrome yesterday were associated in the extraordinary adventure. At the hangar a note was found stating that the men proposed to fly to Australia. Two men, whose ages were estimated at 25 and 27, both about six feet, were seen about the hangar early yesterday morning. They showed' intense interest in the aeroplanes, and climbed into the cockpit of one. They told Mrs Hall, who is connected with the clubhouse, that they were hungry, and she gave them a meal about lunch time. Members ot the ground staff at the aerodrome were uneasy about, the movements ot the two strangers, and when they went up to the clubhouse from the hangar tor morning tea they decided to leave someone in charge of the aerop anos. After lunch the two strangers disappeared, but were again seen about the aorucirome late in the afternoon. When work for the day was completed members of the ground stall closed the hangar doors and locked the petrol pump which stands outside. The sliding doors of the hangar are never locked.

i Boys Warning About 3.30 this morning a resident I who lives some distance away from the aerodrome was awakened by the . barking of his dog. Then he heard a car The noise faded, and he wen! off to sleep. In the next half-hour much must have occurred at the hangar. About 4 o'clock. Peter Allan, the young son of Mr D. M. Allan, instructor to the Aero Club, : heard the sound of an aeroplane. He ; culled out. but his father first thought the boy was talking in his sleep. Shortly afterwards Mrs Allan and the boy heard a crash. They rose, and began a search, but it was not until daylight that the aeroplane was found, with its nose buried deep in the mud of the estuary. The thieves had es- ! caped. i Considerable attention to detail was : paid by the thieves. After opening the ! hangar doors it. was necessary for I them to wheel out two other acroi planes before they could get to the maI chine of their choice. The stolen I aeroplane is known as the Green Moth. ' Z.K.A.A.T.. and is much less conspicuI oils than the other two machines, one j of which is orange and the other blue. After wheeling the machine out of the 1 hangar they replaced the other two ■and'then smashed the lock oil' the 1 petrol pump. They filled the Green I Moth to capacity—l 9 gallons of petrol | —and then wheeled it about 300 yards ito the middle of the flying field. They i carried the chocks with them. Once J in the middle of the field they started i the engine, taxied into the north- : easterly wind, and took off. The (light < lasted only a few hundred yards. It appears that shortly after they got the aeroplane in the air the engine stalled ;or choked, with the result that the i aeroplane dived into the deep mud of the estuary on the fringe of the held | which overlooks the Manukau hari bcur. One of the men must have been ! injured, for on the floor of the cockpit there were bloodstains.

Tracks in the Mud , Tracks in the mud showed the way the men had gone. The tracks were | close together, indicating that perhaps j one was injured and was being helped : along by the other. The tracks skirled ' the shore line, then led up a miniature i gully and disappeared on the grass of j the aerodrome. When members of the ground staff j of the aero club first started to invesj tigate they found a note crudely written in pencil on the page of a note book. The scrap of paper was placed in ar the telephone in the office of the hangar and read: "We are borrowing ! one of your aeroplanes, flying to Australia immediately.—C. Johnson. W. Dawson. P.S. —We are taking enough I petrol to get there." I "They coul<J not, have known much j about Hying an aeroplane," said Mr i Allan. "They apparently started oil' i into the wind all right, but they had : no chance of getting far without first I warming up the engine. The machine '■ cither stalled or they opened the ■ throttle and choked the engine." ! Although the thieves filled the aero--1 plane's petrol tank from the club's | bowser, its capacity of 19 gallons j would have kept them in the air for j only three and a half hours. In that j time, in still air, they would have I flown only about 240 miles. The case I is believed to be the first of its kind ' in New Zealand or Australia.