SURVIVORS' STORY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 51, 2 March 1937, Page 9

SURVIVORS' STORY

'PLANE'S' HEAVY LIST

NO ANXIETY BY PILOTS

(Received March 2, 11.30 a.m.)

BRISBANE, This Day.

Mr. Proud's diary, scratched with a penknife on a piece of metal from the aeroplane, says that the aeroplane crashed on the hillside at 1.50 p.m. on February 19. The aeroplane had. a heavy list to starboard, and. immediately it crashed" it burst-into, flames, the cabin being filled With smoke. Mr. Proud gained an exit by removing a window, and then pulled Mr. Binstead out, and the two of them helped Mr. Westray out. The survivors were obliged to get clear of the aeroplane, as the heat was very great. The next day Mr. Westray left to seek assistance. He called out that he could see a farmhouse, but did not return. Mr. Proud told the rescuers that when the crash occurred the weather did not seem to have been affecting'the aeroplane particularly, «and the pilots showed no signs of anxiety at any time. .There was no hope of saving the other passengers or the pilots, who were trapped' and incinerated. Mr. Binstead told a pitiful tale of his efforts to bring water from a creek only 200 yards away, and said it took' him five hours the last time to do that 200 yards stretch and return. A remarkable feature of the rescue was the high spirits of the survivors after their ten days' ordeal. They had no shelter, and experienced cold and wet weather practically ever since the crash occurred.

Dr. Lawlor does' not expect to get the injured men back to Hillview for three days, owing to the danger of moving them in their exhausted condition.