AUSTRALIAN AIR DISASTER

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21324, 17 November 1934, Page 15

AUSTRALIAN AIR DISASTER

OPENING OF ENQUIRY PILOTS MAY HAVE CHANGED POSITIONS (UIfITED PEESS ASSOCIATION —BT ELECTBIC TELEGBAPH—COPYRIGHT.) (Received November 16, 5.5 p.m.) BRISBANE, November 16. The fact that Captain R. A. Prendergast was rot in the control cabin at the time of the crash of the de Havilland biplane at Longreach yesterday was an important discovery at the preliminary investigations to-day, and this is expected to enable the Air Accidents Investigation Committee to determine the cause of the mishap. Captain Prendergast's body, with that of Mr H. E. Broadfoot, the passenger, was found at the rear of the aeroplane, and those of Mr W. V. Creastes, co-pilot and wireless operator, and Mr F. R. Charlton, engineer, in the pilots' seats, suggesting that a change-over of controls occurred, before the machine went into a spin and hit the ground at 160 miles an hour, the figure at which the speed indicator had stopped. MACHINE EXAMINED PROBABLE CAUSE OF MISHAP (Received November 16, 11.40 p.m.) LONGREACH, November 16. Captain L. Brain made an examination of the wrecked de Havilland biplane, and. believes that the first officer, W. V. Creastes, who was at the controls, tried to establish wireless communication, that in doing so the machine swung, and in an endeavour to correct the swing it developed into a spiral and crashed. The funerals of the three British victims were held to-day. E. H. Broadfoot's widow, who had awaited the arrival of her husband in Brisbane until she learned his fate yesterday, when she was prostrated with grief, returned to Sydney to-day by a New England Airways mail aeroplane. DELAY IN BEGINNING SERVICE FOURTH MACHINE WAITING LONDON, November 15. The fourth de Havilland biplane intended for the Brisbane-Singapore service is scheduled to fly from England next week. Arrangements are now held up, pending the receipt of details of the Longreach accident. Mr Charlton had been 10 years with Imperial Airways, Ltd., and had flown over 6000 hours. Yesterday was his wife's birthday. She said that the news was all the more terrible because she asked her husband not to go. KINGSFORD-SMITH'S PLANS ♦ EARLY ANNOUNCEMENT LIKELY (Received November 16, 7.20 p.m.) LOS ANGELES, November 15. . Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith flew to San Francisco to-day in a regular commercial aeroplane. He said that he would discuss, with persons whom he declined to identify, "somewhat nebulous plans for a possible trans-Continental and trans-Atlantic flight." His aeroplane, the Lady Southern Cross, is at present in the Lockheed factory for an overhaul. Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith added that he expects to make an important announcement within a few days.