MELROSE'S CRASH

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 142, 12 December 1935, Page 20

MELROSE'S CRASH

LUCKY ESCAPE FROM DEATH

NEW AEROPLANE WRECKED

[From "Tha Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, December 5. After having flown three times over the England-Australia route and-round Australia without mishap, and over thousands of miles of Malay jungle searching for Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, the young Australian airman, C. J. Melrose, met disaster on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney on Tuesday. He crashed in rain and fog in attempting to land because of bad weather at Penrose, near Bundanoon, about 100 miles from Sydney. He was badly cut about the hands and face and is believed to . have ' concussion. His machine, a new .Percival Gull, was wrecked. Melrose left Melbourne at. 9.30 a.m.1, landed at Cobtamundra'and took off .from there for Sydney in bad weather. Heavy rain and dense fog enveloped the mountains when he was about to cut through to,;. Sydney. Looking for somewhere to;, land, ■ he/flew > round and.round the:little township of Penr rose, where-the •residents watched him~ r eaiisirig his peril. /He' appeared to try to; land:on? a cricket: ground, then turned and put the machine down ,i*ri a clear strip 'of paddock. The aeroplane struck a stump and pitched for-ward-on its nose, and the front of the machine was badly damaged. Melrose, bleeding from the face and half conscious, was lifted from the machine by railway men who rushed to the spot. He was carried through heavy, rain into the home of a schoolmaster^ where railway first-aid ; meni attended to him. A doctor and an;ambulance/were galled from Bowrat 23' miles 'away. j ENGINE-DRIVER'S ACCOUNT. "Melrose is,a real hero," said Errol Bl^ckett,; an engine-driver,. who witnessed the orashi' "He; > smiled a little' when I'rushed over to. him, and said, 'It feels, as if someone has hitme under the,..chin.'." , .. ......_• . . . .',•'•■■ '■. Blackett,: who was driving a goods! train'lto. Mittagorig, said he saw- the aeroplane circling around the engine,' and'realised that it was in' trouble. , It' kept ■disappearing ' from view 'in- 'the1 mist,; and was when 200 'feet' up. "I-tried to direct him to the cricket pitch,"' said" Blackett,"; "by waving'my hands and pointing. It was raining like fury,: Melrose: was 'apparently -trying to pick' up his beatings" from rriy. engine's po'sitioriv !'He attempted to rise, and there was»a terrific smash ;when the aeroplane hit the [tree-stump. I rushed over, arid while we were carrying him to,the station he said his legs felt bad, but otherwise made no complaint. .He tried to be cheerful." "Who hit me?"-said'Melrose, when rescuers lifted him from the aeroplane. He was* semi-conscious then! He revived, swiftly,' and ' before '.the' ambulance and doctor arrived, he left, the cottajge to which he Jiad'been taken and inspected 'the . wreck,' though: his head arid chin. were- deeply•'cut, 'and his .body severely 'br,uised. '•' "Just tbo:. bad,'" he ruminated,,as he viewed, the remain's 'of the ■aeroplane 'which had just brought him;safely.from England to Australia. -He-was by far the least concerned of anyone there. He apologised'to .his1 rescuers',' the'doctor, arid the ambulance men, and 'before being taken to Bowral' Hospital, arranged for the wreck to be" covered with tarpaulins,'and 'wrote telegrams to -his mother and friends. "Everything 0.X.," he wrote, while he was still suffering slight concussion, and his head was swathed in bandages. The wrecked aeroplane also seemed to belie the words of the telegrams.