INQUIRY INTO AIR CRASH

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 2, 27 September 1944, Page 3

INQUIRY INTO AIR CRASH

Evidence Of Pilot (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) NELSON, September 26. An official inquiry into the crash of an Air Travel Ltd.) plane on Mount Hope on June 30 was opened today. The board comprises Mr. Stilwell, S.M., Wing Commander G. B. Bolt and Wing Commander H. C. Walker. Wing Commander Roy Kean, R.N.Z. A.F., inspector of accidents, stated that his investigation showed that there was nothing that indicated defects :n the plane or dereliction of duty by responsible perWilliam Dini, engineer at Hokitika, gave evidence as to checking the machine and signing the certificate of safety. Kelvin Jones, traffic superintendent,, produced manifests showing that the weight of the load,, 16051 b., - was 1 within the permissible maximum 0f_16231b. Traffic Superintendent Kelvin Jones said that when the plane left Nelson it tarried 29 gallons of petrol. Corporal Laurie James Price, in charge of the meteorological station, Nelson aerodrome, said that reports given the pilot on June 30 indicated that the Nel-son-Karamea route should have been taken. The Buller Gorge was obscured and the only forecast given was for the Karamea route. Bruce Rainsford Perry, Wellington, a passenger injured in the crash, said that when the plane struck out over the hills he did not consider it had sufficient height to clear the ridge ahead. Suddenly the plane banked steeply and the nose went down with the machine out of control. Percival C. Lewis, the pilot, a flight lieutenant of the Air Force on loan to the com pan v, said the plane was not equipped with wireless. From a weather report received from Westport that there was a cloud base of 3000 feet, he judged •the route through the Buller Gorge to be the better one. From the way the forecasts were supplied, he took it that the Nelson meteorological officer considered one route the better but not that the other was impassable. Witness said that the plane was travelling into a south-west wind- The wind further up was more westerly. The plane got mixed up in the two winds. The plane stalled while it was on its side in a bank and fell away to the right. He then realized be did not have sufficient height to come out of the dive. He had considered that he had a sufficient margin of height to cross the ridge. ■ More height would have been safer but less comfortable for the passengers. He observed no defects in the plane or the engines. The hearing was adjourned: