GRIM FLYING TRAGEDY

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 198, 19 May 1936, Page 2

GRIM FLYING TRAGEDY

Collision in Mid-air According to evidence at a double inquest in the aerodrome at Grantham, Lincolnshire, recently so violent were a mid-air collision and the subsequent explosion that the parachute of one of the victims opened and carried the dead body to earth. In till probability the intense concussion automatically “pulled'’ the rip cord. Tlie dead men were: Acting Pilot Oflicer G. C. R. George, aged 21, of Hove; and Leading Aircraftman P. J. Pugh, a native of Monmouthshire. Both were under instruction at No. 3 Flying Training School and each had had experience of solo flying in "teacher” aeroplanes and in service type machines. They went up in sepai'tile machines to practise steep and medium turns and landings, and in the opinion of experts, must have been killed instantly when the aeroplanes collided. James Huekerby, foreman platelayer, of Colsterworth, stated that he saw the two machines at approximately 1000 ft., travelling in opposite directions. They hanked and then seemed to liy into each other. There was an explosion, and one of the aeroplanes corkscrewed Io the ground. He saw a pilot coming | down by parachute and apparently I make a perfect landing. Huekerby ran to where the first machine crashed and found Pugh dead in Die cockpit. lie then looked for tlie man with the parachute, and found him in a wood lying dead on the ground, with his parachute lodged in the trees. A verdict of “accidental death'’ was I returned in each ease.