All Black recalls ‘hit on the head’

Press, 21 April 1982, Page 6

All Black recalls ‘hit on the head’

PA-' .Auckland The' All Black prop forward; Gary Knight,; told the District Court at .Auckland, yesterday; that-he saw arti- u cles 'coming, .from, a plane' which flew over Eden Park during-the third All Black ; Springbok rugby test, and he was struck by an article during the second half of the ' match. ' . Mr Knight was giving evidence, on the second .day of a trial in which two men face 11 charges arising from inci r dents .on September 12 last year. Marx - Jones, aged • 32, a truck driver, of Herne Bay, and Grant Albert Cole, aged 19, a . freight operator, of Westmere, have pleaded not guilty to the charges. They; face a charge, of operating a Cessna 172 aircraft in such a manner as to cause unnecessary danger to people or property, another of flying a Cessna 172 aircraft over a populous area at inco Ilion lAAfi Ff and a third

of committing a criminal nuisance by dropping diverse articles from an aircraft .in flight, knowing it would endanger'public safety. . They also each face eight charges nF acquit ‘ . Mr Knight told the Court that he noticed a plane flying ... over the ground and saw;, articles coming from it. He was struck op the top to the back of the head by flour during a ‘.’team-talk situation,” he said. there was a bag beside him?; on the ground. - He said he. fell to * the ground, but decided, to con-, tinue playing, alttioifgh he had “a bit of a headache." To Mr Michael, Crew, for Cole, Mr Knight said that had never played in a situa-' tion like that and it was the . most distracting he had been ■ ■in. • ’ ' ' He said that he had beeir' more seriously injured in a test match against the French. The trial was delaved

earlier in the day when the foreman was unable to .be in court because he was taken ill. The,trial continued before 11 jurors,-who elected a. new foreman. ' ’ Mr Crew and Mrs Rhys Harrison; for Jones, said-that . both defendants admitted . that-Jones was the pilot ;pf, the plane and Cole the -passenger. They. also admitted. that it could not have landed, on Eden Park. : K pilot with United Pacific ; Airlines, Terrence. Michael ■Walton, a spectator at the test, said he saw ■ the Cessna fly-as low as 20m above the 'ground.Smoke bombs, parachute flares, bundles of black pofjythene, and leaflets were dropped from the plane on to the park and the crowd. “I thought it was the height of irresponsibility,” Mr Walton said. "The act was dangerous to human life, not .only injury. The plane appeared, to be flown erraticallv.” ‘