AIR SERVICE TO AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21323, 16 November 1934, Page 11

AIR SERVICE TO AUSTRALIA

Inauguration To Be Postponed ' CRASH ENQUIRY CAUSE A COMPLETE MYSTERY (tni-kd a ;s'm i.vi \"S ■■ i;v fxectriu •ii i.r.'.;R.\rtr—i-'orYRKUiT.) (Received November 15, 11.5 p.m.) CANBERRA, November 15. The Federal Cabinet to-day ordered an immediate investigation of the crash of the De Havilland machine for the Empire air route near Longreach. Meanwhile, inauguration of the air mail service between Australia and Singapore has been suspended. The Deputy Prime Minister, Dv. Earle Page, said every precaution would be taken to avoid further accidents. Mr R. A. Parkhill, Minister for Defence, said the Longreach disaster, following so closely upon the loss of the similar air liner, Miss Hobart, of! the Victorian coast, necessitated the closest enquiry into the whole question. Officials of the Civil Aviation Department, with Captain Lester Brain, chief pilot, and Mr W. Baird, works manager for Qantas-Empirc Airways, Limited, have left for the scene of the accident in the Diana, the first machine brought from England for the Australia-Singapore section. A third similar machine arrived aboard the freighter Bendigo on Monday, and is to be assembled here. Mr Hudson Eysh, managing director of Qantas Empire Airways, stated that the cause of the crash was a complete mystery. The pilot, Captain Prendergast, was most experienced. He had brought the Imperial Airways machine, Astraea, to Australia last June, and he was familiar with Australian conditions.

The extension of the Empire air route to Australia, making it the longest regular service in the world, has been planned for some years, and after several delays the service was to have been inaugurated early next month, one machine leaving Brisbane on December 10, and another leaving Croydon a day or two later. The Duke of Gloucester was to have dispatched the aeroplane from Brisbane. The section of the route from Singapore to Brisbane is to be operated by Quotas-Empire Airways, a company formed by Imperial Airways, Ltd., which operates the service as far as Singapore, and Qantas Airways, one of the most successful Australian aviation companies. For this section of the route the de Havilland Diana was specially designed. The first of these machine; brought to Australia, however, was for another company, which operated a service between Tasmania and Melbourne, and this aeroplane, the Miss Hobart, was lost at sea about a month ago. The cause of the accident was a mystery. Other machines of the same type have been flying in England for some time and have given no trouble, and the one in which Mr Brain has just flown to the scene of the latest accident was flown out from .England by him.

FOUR KILLED IN T CRASH MACHINE FOR EMPIRE SERVICE NO CAUSE SUGGESTED (Received November 15, 7.10 p.m.) BRISBANE, November 15. Four men were killed when a four-engined de Havilland Diana biplane crashed 29 miles south of Longreach at 7.30 a.m. to-day. This was one of the machines intended for the Singapore-Brisbane section of the England-Australia air service. The dead are: Captain A. R. Prendergast, of Imperial Airways, Ltd. Mr W. V. Creastes, co-pilot and wireless operator. Mr F. R. Charlton, engineer. Mr Emery Hugh Broadfoot, of South Kensington, Sydney, Shell Oil Company representative, who was travelling as a passenger. Captain Prendergast, a senioi pilot for Imperial Airways, brought the machine from England for delivery to Qantas-Empire Airways. The other members of the crew were employed by Imperial Airways. Captain Prendergast had flown 6300 hours during his seven years in the Royal Air Force and four years with Imperial Airways. His colleague, Mr Creastes, had flown 1560 hours. He joined Imperial Airways in May after 10 years in the Air Force. The accident, which caused a painful sensation in aviation circles, occurred three miles from the Barsdale homestead, a quarter of an hour after taking off from Longreach, and when men from the homestead reached the scene they found the three members of the crew dead. Mr Broadfoot was still alive, but died later. The aeroplane apparently dived and was badly wrecked. The bodies Were terribly mangled. An _ eye-witness states that the machine gave the impression that the pilot was endeavouring to return to Longreach. but fell suddenly, on the regular mail route, in lightly-timbered country. The machine left Darwin on Tuesday afternoon for Brisbane, landed at Avon Downs for petrol, and reached Longreach at 6 p.m. yesterday. By a coincidence, Mr Broadfoot was the Shell Company's representative in Darwin during the air race, having taken the place nf Mr Hennkson, who was killed in a Cl *ash at Winton on October 4, before

the race, while on his way to Darwin. Captain Prendergast, who was 34 years old, was born in Durban. He served in the navy during the war, and joined the Royal Air Force in 1923. He was a test pilot at Karachi in 1025, and in 1928 took part in the evacuation of Kabul by air. He joined Imperial Airways in 1930.

PLANS MAY STILL BE ADHERED TO BELIEF OF IMPERIAL AIRWAYS OFFICIALS (Received November IC, 1.25 a.m.) LONDON, November 15. The Australian crash has created a painful impression in London, especially in view of unfortunate preliminaries to the 1931 Christmas air mail flight, when delay was caused by a crash. Imperial Airways, Ltd. has not vet been advised by Qantas-Empire Airways of the temporary suspension of the air mail arrangements. Officials are confident that unless the investigation involves any sweeping change in th~ plan, it will still be possible to adhere (o the original schedule in spite of the loss of a machine.