AIR TRAGEDY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22337, 26 February 1938, Page 17

AIR TRAGEDY

LORD AND LADY PLUNKET

KILLED

MR W. R. HEARST'S MACHINE

CRASHES

(TTNITED PHESS ISSOCIAXIOS—COPTSIOKT.J

(Received February 25, 8.40 pjn.)

NEW YORK, February 25.

Lord and Lady Plunket and a pilot were killed, and another passenger was seriously injured, when one of Mr W. R. Hearst's fleet of private aeroplanes crashed on his San Simeon ranch. Lord and Lady Plunket were visiting Mr Hearst. The accident occurred when tha aeroplane was groping through dense fog to make a landing. Lord and Lady Plunket were burned to death inside the cabin. The pilot was thrown clear of the wreckage.

Lord Plunket, son of the former Governor-General of New Zealand, was the sixth Baron. He was 38 years of age. He married in 1922, the widow of Captain Jack Barnato, Royal Air Force. The heir to the title is the Hon. Patrick Terence Plunket.

Lord and Lady Plunket arrived last Tuesday aboard the liner Queen Mary. They were on their way to Mr Hearst's'ranch from Los Angeles when the pilot became lost in fog which had covered the coast since yesterday. The aeroplane crashed a mile and a half south of the Hearst airport. Mr James Lawrence, travelling companion of Lord and Lady Plunket, was injured. He is a son of Sir Walter Lawrence, of London. Mr Lawrence suffered a double fracture of the ankle and severe burns. The pilot, Mr T. J. Phillips, was employed by Mr Hearst.