BANKSIDE AIR CRASH

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26396, 14 April 1951, Page 8

BANKSIDE AIR CRASH

INQUEST ON VICTIMS ADJOURNED CORONER ASKS FOR MORE EVIDENCE The evidence wa* inadequate for a verdict to be given, said the Coroner (Mr Raymond- Ferner) after hearing evidence called by Sergeant L. F. Ricketts at the inquest into the deaths of four occupants of the Ministry of Works Miles Gemini aircraft Which crashed near Bankside on March 29. The Coroner adjourned the inquest to April 20 for further consideration and evidence. “I want to hear evidence as to the loading of the aircraft, who was aboard it, who wag the pilot. and how the bodies were recovered.’’ the Coroner said.

He did not propose to go into the question of how the aircraft' got into difficulties, said the Coroner before the inquest, since the Minister of Civil Aviation (Mr W. S. Goosman) had announced that a public Inquiry would be held into the causes of the crash. He would therefore . onflne the inquest to finding out what happened to the occupants of the aeroplane. Mr E. B. E. Taylor-appeared for the widow of Harold Craig Edwards, Mr R. A. Young for the relatives of Leslie Clifton, and Mr A. L. Haslam for the relatives of Lloyd Wilson Nicholls. The relatives of the fourth man in the aircraft, Bruce Charles Alexander Pryce, were not represented by counsel. , Robert James Rains, a farmer, said he had seen an aeroplane flying very low about 4 p.m. on March 29. Its engines sounded all right, but it was yawing from side to side. There was practically no wind at thj time, and there was no low cloud. The aeroplane passed very low over a clump of bluegum trees, dived towards the ground, but rose again and travelled in a gradual climb toward.-; the place where it crashed.

John O’Connell said he was working on his father’s farm when he saw a yellow twin-engined aircraft flying low oyer the farm buildings. The engines did not sound right, and the aircraft appeared to be going to land in a paddock. it then dived steeply out of witness’s sight, and he heard a loud crash. He went to the scene of the crash, about 500 yards away, and saw several occupants of the aeroplane lying on the ground dead. Colin Thomas Bushby Pearson, a pathologist, said that in his opinion the cause of the deaths of ti ; four men was shock, due to multiple injuries.