FLYING-EOAT SINKS

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26032, 8 February 1950, Page 4

FLYING-EOAT SINKS

Mishap In Evans Bay

ALL OF CREW ESCAPE (New Zealand Press Association.) WELLINGTON, February 7. A Catalina flying-boat of the Royal New Zealand Air Force was struck by a heavy swell and sank in Evans Bay as it was taxi-ing to take-off at 2.20 p.m. to-day. The crew .of six and two passengers, all Air Force men, escaped unharmed and were picked up • within a few minutes by the control launch. The accident happened on a heavy sea driven by 40-mile-an-hour gusts of wind. The crew said that just opposite the Patent Slip a swell of three to four feet stove in the glass of the bomb aimer’s panel. Water flooded in and sank the craft. The men aboard were lucky to escape before she sank. Eye-witnesses who saw the nose of the flying-boat dive into the sea and the tail shoot up were amazed when the men escaped, one even without getting wet. Aircraft Driven on to Beach The Catalina was carried by the sea further toward the head of Evans Bay, where it lies to-night, with its tail pointing into the air and the body and wings just submerged. Steps were taken to make her fast in that position. If the weather is favourable the Harbour Board’s floating crane will lift her to-morrow and she will be removed to Shelly Bay to be stripped down. Attached to the Hobsonville unit of gie Royal New Zealand Air Force sth Squadron, the Catalina returned earlier in the afternoon from the Chatham Islands and set down passengers. She was leaving on her return to Hobsonville when the accideftt happened. The crew were: Flying Officer P. V. Goddard, Auckland, captain; Pilot 3 J. J. Shrubsall, Auckland, second Bilot; Navigator 3 H. S. Butterworth, •unedin; Signaller 1 R. C. Macfarlane, New Plymouth; Engineer 1 A. G. F. Burke, Christchurch; Engineer 4 D. J. King, Tauranga. The two passengers who boarded the flying-boat at Wellington were Flight Lieutenant L. R. R. Smith and Flying Officer V. Hjorring, both stationed at Auckland.

Official Account An Air Force official said the- Catalina went to the head of the bay seeking quiet water for the take off and was making its take-off run when the accident happened. The men were swift to act when the sea stove in the bomb aimer’s panel and the water poured in. The captain and co-pilot escaped through an emergency hatch above them and the rest of the crew and two passengers through the “blister” amidships. Two rubber dinghys were brought and floated by the men ,as they climbed out. One dinghy escaped them. Two men got into the second one, but the others went into the water. One of those in the dinghy, a passenger, did not get wet, but the others were soaked to the skin. When the accident happened officials of the Air Force, Harbour Board, and police rushed to the scene and, after learning of the safety of the men, conferred at once on means of salvaging the aircraft. The salvage is the immediate concern of the technical services branch of the Air Force, whose new director. Group Captain G H Proctor, arrived from England last week.

The Catalina is part of the LendLease equipment that New Zealand received from the United States at the end of the war. Air Force officials said the extent of the financial loss was therefore difficult to estimate.

AIRCRAFT LEAPS INTO AIR

ACCOUNT GIVEN BY EYEWITNESSES OCCUPANTS SUFFER CUTS AND ABRASIONS From Our Own Reporter _ WELLINGTON, February 7. Eye-witnesses of the sinking of the Catalina flying-boat in Evans Bay said that the aircraft, after taxi-ing downwind, turned into a choppy sea to begin its run before taking off. It appeared to swing off its course and then with a .roar of engines it began a series of leaps, covering a distance of about 50 feet each. Suddenly the nose of the aircraft became submdfrged and its tail shot up perpendicularly. The crew of six and the two passengers were seen scrambling out of the safety hatch in the body of the aircraft, to which they clung until the launch rescued them. They were taken « the Air Force station at Shelly Bay, where cuts and abrasions were attended to. They were able to leave for Paraparaumu just after 7 o clock to continue their journey to Auckland by a Dakota which had been flown from Hobsonville with a wrecking crew. The wrecking crew will investigate the salvage of the Catalina.

The occupants of the aircraft lost all their luggage, and when they left for Paraparaumu wore an assortment of Air Force uniforms provided by the staff at Shelly Bay. •

EFFECT ON TASMAN SERVICE

VIEW OF CHAIRMAN OF HARBOUR BOARD (New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON. February 7. I cannot see that to-day’s flyingboat accident at Evans Bay is going to affect the proposed trans-Tasman service, ■ said the chairman of the Wellington Harbour Board (Mr W H Price) this evening. Flying-boats had m the past used Evans Bay both for alighting and taking off in conditions apparently much less favourable than they were to-day, Mr Price said.