CORONER’S COURT

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27612, 19 March 1955, Page 9

CORONER’S COURT

IDENTIFICATION OF DEAD PILOT

INQUEST INTO DEATH OF MAN AND DAUGHTER

An inquest into the death of John Watling Williams, aged 22, of Te Puke, was opened before the Coroner (Mr E. B. E. Taylor) yesterday. Williams, who was an acting-pilot officer in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, at Wigram, was the pilot of a Harvard aircraft that crashed in the Waimakariri riverbed near the Eyrewell State Forest on Thursday morning. In evidence Herbert James Dalzell, an air training officer at Wigram, said that Williams had a personal call sign, “Aero 74,” which he had used when given an taxi clearance at 10.50 a.m. on March 17. The witness said that when he heard that an aircraft had crashed he called up by radio all aircraft flying, and the only one that did not reply to the call was No. 67, the aircraft Williams had been flying. Robert Mostyn Sinclair, a pilot under training at Wigram, said he had been with Williams for eight weeks under training. At 10.48 a.m. on March 17 he had been detailed for an exercise with an instructor. Williams had been detailed for the same exercise, but he had seen him climb into his aircraft by himself. John Reece, chief technical officer at Wigram, gave evidence of finding a body in the crashed aircraft, and Edward Sheppard, a warrant officer, said that in the wreckage of the plane he had found a watch marked “J. W. Williams, Te Puke.” Sergeant Robert William Hope said that when he found the body most of it had been burnt. It was possible to tell only that the remains were those of a human being, and no postmortem examination was possible. The inquest was adjourned sine die. Truck Falls Into Gorge Findings of death from shock caused by mutiple injuries suffered when a truck driven by McCaffrey left the Rakaia Gorge road and crashed over a cliff on February 6 were given by the Coroner when inquests into the deaths of Thomas McCaffrey, aged 55, and his daughter, Patricia, aged 10, were concluded.

Reginald Arthur Britton, a truck driver, of Riccarton, said he had found the truck after it had gone into the gorge. He discovered the body of Patricia McCaffrey about half-way down the side of the gorge. Mr and Mrs McCaffrey were in the cab of the truck at the bottom, unconscious. A baby, crying, crawled out through a broken window to meet him. Mr McCaffrey died later. Victor Maurice Preston, a Transport Department vehicle inspector, said he inspected the truck on February 12. It was a complete wreck. He found the primary steering arm broken, and the appearance of the fracture suggested that the arm had been cracked for some time. The steering mounts were loose.

Medical evidence was given by Marjorie Elizabeth McCready, of Rakaia Gorge, and Colin Thomas Bushby Pearson, of Christchurch, who conducted post-mortem examinations. Man Killed by Truck Evidence that John Eric Ridden had been standing in the middle of the road waving his arms and jumping up and down just before the truck the witness was driving struck and killed him was given by Norman Allan James Bishop, aged 25, a driver (Mr E. M. Hay), when the inquest into Ridden’s death on the ChristchurchAkaroa highway at Duvauchelle Bay on December 14 was concluded. A finding of death from multiple injuries suffered when Bishop’s truck struck Ridden was given by the Coroner. Leslie Wilkinson, a Government analyst, gave evidence of the alcohol contents in samples of Ridden’s blood, brain and urine he had received from Dr. Pearson. Evidence was also given by Colin Thomas Bushby Pearson, a pathologist. Death During Operation An inquest into the death of Eliza Jane Motley, aged 82, on February 8 was concluded. The Coroner found that death resulted from a circulatory failure that occurred while the woman was undergoing an operation at the Burwood Public Hospital. Evidence was given by Mr J. J. Brownlee, a surgeon at the hospital.