AMSTERDAM AIR CRASH

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22600, 4 January 1939, Page 3

AMSTERDAM AIR CRASH

AUCKLAND DOCTOR’S ESCAPE (raou oca own coajugpoHDiHT.) LONDON, December 1. With a vivid red scar showing on the top of his head. Dr. W. A. Fairdough, of Auckland, flew back to London from Amsterdam. Dr. Fairclough was one of the 13, passengers injured when the Dutch aeroplane, flying from Berlin, to London, crashed outside Amsterdam, killing six. After a few days in the Queen Wilhelmina Hospital, his request that he should be allowed. to continue his journey to London was granted by the Medical Superintendent. A nurse accompanied him. Dr. Fairclough, who had been in Vienna' and Cologne, was travelling by air to London by way of Berlin and Amsterdam. The airliner crashed in misty weather early on the evening of November 14, just a few miles outside the aerodrome at Amsterdam. The pilot had received a wireless to keep op circling as the landing ground was not immediately clear. But the machine crashed; the pilot and his assistant were among the killed. Recalling the accident, Dr! Fairdough said: “I really don’t recollect much about the crash itself. I remember looking out of the window and thinking that we seemed to be flymg perilously close to the ground at what I thought was a very high speed. Then I heard a jagged, tearing sound. The next thing I remember was crawling on my hands • and knees. I was the first person to recover consciousness, and I saw distressing sights. I must have been about 100 yards away from the machine, and, thinking about it afterwards, I realise that I must have been unconscious for some time because the blood on my coat was dried. • Wing and Engines Torn Off “It was some time before help arrived, and I recall trying to assist a Canadian y/oman away from the wreck because I thought it might go\dp in flames. Afterwards, I rea wing and the engmesSome distance away from the machine, so really I need not have been worried .about this. I think I must have fainted again, because I could remember no more until I woke up in hospital. The next day I came out in a mass of bruises Irom top to toe. It was found that one of my ribs was broken. They look an X-ray—and gave a lecture to students at the same time. “They were very good to us in hospital, and did everything they could. I lost none of my possessions. Everything was collected from the wreck and from the ground round the machine. Placed on trays, the various articles were brought round for us to pick out our belongings. There were my fountain pen, . studs, umbrella, and camera un- & farmed, with films which I shall r nave developed. I had taken some *naps at Cologne during an exciting Period.” a professional point of view, w. Fairclough considers that the clinics which he visited were “1 Vienna and Utrecht. With the «tter centre' he was particularly