AIR FATALITY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 154, 27 March 1937, Page 10

AIR FATALITY

Machine Crashes on Taieri Plain XOUNG MAN KILLED Aeroplane Strikes Ground With Terrific Impact By Telegraph—Press Association. Dunedin, March 26. An aii' fatality occurred on the Taieri Plain shortly before 4 o clock yesterday afternoon when the Otago Aero Club’s de llavilland Gypsy Moth plane crashed in a paddock near Wylie’s Crossing, the pilot receiving injuries which must ha\c caused instant death. The victim ot the. crash was Errol Warrington Colvin, a young member of the club, aged 22 years, who resided with his parents at 60 Forth Street, Dunedin. / The young man took off from North Taieri aerodrome at 3.4-5 p.m. on a practice Hight and, after circling to gain altitude, Hew in a westerly direction toward Outram. Ten minutes after leaving the aerodrome the machine, which was by this time over Wyllie’s Crossing, about a mile and a half in a direct line from the airport, was observed by an onlooker to go into at least three consecutive roils, from which the pilot recovered satisfactorily each time. After the fourth roll, however, it did not come back on to an even keel and appeared to side-slip, hurtling into a paddock of oats at the rear of the residence of Mr. Stanley Clark, farmer.

Apparent Side-slip.

From Ihe evidence of two eyewitnesses, it appears that the pilot was practising stunts and, in attemptin'- to do a roll at too low an altitude, got into a side-slip out of which be was unable to bring his plane. Accounts as to the height at which Colvin was flying when the mishap occurred are somewhat vague, but it is clear that a few minutes before the crash he was up about 2000 feet. In any case, the velocity with which the plane hit the ground must have been terrific as the nose and engine of the machine were buried fully three feet under the surface. The pilot’s cockpit and the fuselage were completely telescoped on to the engine and every strut was splintered to matchwood, all that could be seen this morning being a pitiful heap of wreckage covered with a few fragments of wing fabric lying on the rim of the miniature crater in which the engine and undercarriage had buried themselves. Constable Wroblenski, who is at present in charge of the Mosgiel station, and Constable Southgate, Outram, were on the scene shortly after the accident occurred and, with the assistance of some men who were working in the vicinity, removed sufficient of the wreckage to recover the body, which was so terribly injured that death must have been instantaneous. Flight Lieutenant E. G. Olson, formerly pilot-instructor at the Taieri aerodrome and at present a member of the New Zealand Royal Air Force headquarters staff at Wigram, was at the airport on Thursday examining several candidates for their licences and, on behalf of the Inspector of Air Accidents, he has taken full charge of investigations into the cause of the crash. Eye-witnesses’ Account. Twcrmen who were harvesting a few hundred yards from where the machine fell told the “Otago Daily Times” that when they first saw the plane it was flying at a height of what they judged to be about 2000 feet. The pilot was apparently practising rolls, and one ol the men noticed him execute three of these and then fly on. He lost height each time, however, and when the man looked again he saw the plane fall sideways from what seemed to him to be an upside-down position. Both onlookers could hear the shriek of the stay-wires as the machine hurtled earthward, and one of them was very definite in his assertion that a second or so before the crash occurred the engine was “revved” up and then cut out again. The wrecked plane was one of the veteran machines of the Taieri Aerodrome, having been given to the club bv Ihe Government in 1030. It had about 200 hours of flying time to its credit, but it was nevertheless thoroughly stanch and serviceable. It was fully reconditioned in January and was only recently completely overhauled and passed as airworthy. As fe the custom whenever a machine leaves an airport, even if only for a short flight, it was given a searching examination by the club's ground engineer. What remained of the wings of the wrecked plane was removed to the aero club’s hangars this evening, but it took four men nearly four hours’ hard digging this morning before the buried engine and its components were fully uncovered. It was then necessary to requisition a tractor to drag the wreckage out of the bole prior to loading it on a lorry for removal to the aerodrome. This is the first serious mishap that has occurred at Taieri to an Otago Aero Club’s plane, although two years ago a machine was involved in a fatal crash at St. Andrews. Colvin was a popular member of the club and an airman of considerable promise. A pupil of the club’s pilot instructor, Flying Officer D. Campbell, he had nine hours’ flying experience to his credit and was the holder of an A licence.