CRASH OF JET BOMBER
CORONER’S COMMENT
AT INQUEST (Rec. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 17 The four men who died when the first prototype of the Handley Page Victor jet bomber crashed on a test run on Wednesday, July 14, "had no: wasted their lives,” Mr J. P. Bairstow, the North Bedfordshire Acting Coroner, said today. “Their deaths I am sure will save many live<” Mr Bairstow said before adjourning the inquest to a date to be fixed. One of the four men was a South Australian, Bruce Heithersay, aged 28 The others were lan Kenneth Bennett aged 29; Ronal Vivian Ecclestone, aged 31; and Albert Bernard Cook, aged 24 The Handley Page Victor, claimed to be the fastest bomber in the world, was undergoing low-flying trials at the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield Mr Robert Williams, of Boxley. Hertfordshire, a flight test observer, told the Court the plane hit the ground and disintegrated. He searched the wreckage and found the bodies. Mr Bairstow commended him on the way he had carried out the task.
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Press, Volume XC, Issue 27405, 19 July 1954, Page 9
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173CRASH OF JET BOMBER Press, Volume XC, Issue 27405, 19 July 1954, Page 9
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