Aircraft Plunges Into Spanish Crowd

Press, Volume C, Issue 29702, 21 December 1961, Page 8

Aircraft Plunges Into Spanish Crowd

- fN^J’-A.-HeMter—Cop3/rteht> SEVILLE, December 20. Men, women, and children streamed out of the Spanish city of Seville yesterday to welcome a mercy motorcade from Madrid—and then fled screaming as a light aeroplane crashed into them.

Thirty were reported killed cm the spot and more than 100 were injured as the aircraft plunged into the crowd after apparently hitting telephone wires, die Associated Press reported. The aeroplane was a twoseater which had been chartered by a Madrid magazine to cover the arrival of the motorcade. The crowd had gathered at Hie entrance of the city to await the arrival of the convoy which was carrying clothing and food for the victims of last month’s floods. It was bringing nearly £lOO,OOO worth of relief for tile Seville victims. The aeroplane was flying low over' the crowd when it suddenly crashed into it. The two pilots of the aircraft were among those killed. A Madrid photographer, who was a passenger, escaped with injuries. A Government official in Seville, quoted by Reuter, said that the dead included eight children. He said that 15 of the injured were in a serious condition. Mr Juan Ernesto Fluger,

of Seville, said: “Everything happened suddenly . . there was no time to realise what was going on. ‘"The plane fell in the middle of the crowd and caught fire. People began to run away from the wreck screaming. Later we saw most of the dead were badly burned.” Thousands Waiting Thousands of people waiting to welcome the flood relief convoy into Seville were stunned by the crash and crowded into hospitals and private clinics asking for news of the dead and injured. The injured were taken to the city’s three main hospitals. Ceremonies planned to welcome the flood lorries were cancelled and the city was silent as they drove in. The British United Press said there were about 100 lorries in the convoy and some were carrying Christmas gifts as well as supplies for the flood victims. The agency said last month’s floods left about 8000 people homeless in Seville and nearby regions. Some of the victims among the crowd were electrocuted

as the 60.000-volt cable thrashed about, the agency said. The children who died were from poor families who had been hard hit in the recent floods and had been looking forward to sharing in the relief supplies from Madrid. For many of them the relief convoy was a thing they had awaited anxiously in the hope of a brighter Christmas.