Ejected From Aircraft

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30846, 3 September 1965, Page 1

Ejected From Aircraft

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, September 2. Amid scenes of wild cheering and applause from teen-age fans, Vivian Prince, the drummer of the British pop group, the Pretty Things, was ejected from a Pan American DC7 aircraft as it was about to take off from Whenuapai tonight.

The aircraft was delayed for several minutes before taking off for the United States with the four other members of the group aboard.

Prince had been the central figure of boisterous scenes in the airport lounge, watched by a large crowd of visitors and arriving and departing passengers

When it came time to board the aircraft, the other members of the Pretty Things and Eden Kane, another pop singer, left the lounge without disturbance. Prince, waving a tambourine, was supported by a friend as he was taken out to the aircraft. Two of the aircraft engines had started by the time Prince went inside the plane, but the entrance door did not close.

A few minutes later, the P.A.A. director for New Zealand. Mr W. L. Rolph, and several officials boarded the plane and reappeared at the doorway, escorting Prince.

A heated discussion took place at the top of the gangway and Prince was taken off the aircraft and back to the airport lounge to the cheers and applause of the crowd. Mr Rolph said afterwards that Prince was in no condition to travel. “It was not fair to the crew or to the passengers," he said. Mr Rolph said the next P.A.A. flight was on Saturday Prince would be accepted as passenger if he was in a fit condition to travel. A police officer ushered Prince out of the lounge into a waiting car being driven by a member of an Auckland pop group. His fans left the airport with him and the aircraft took off.