ACCIDENT IN SOUNDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 92, 20 April 1938, Page 11

ACCIDENT IN SOUNDS

DOCTOR'S AIR TRIP

RETURN FLIGHT IN DARK

(By Telegraph.) (Special to the "Evening Post.")

BLENHEIM, April 19.

Air transport was responsible for securing prompt medical attention for an injured man at Manaroa, Pelorus Sound, yesterday afternoon.

Charles Harvey, of Manaroa, received a kick on the side of the face from a horse and he was rendered unconscious. It was feared that the injury might be serious, and a telephone call was put through to Blenheim requesting that a doctor should be sent by aeroplane as there was a paddock at Manaroa which could be used by light aircraft. There was no doctor available in Blenheim, however, so Dr. E. B. W. Smyth*was summoned from Picton. He motored to the aerodrome where the Marlborough Aero Club's pilot-instructor, Mr. A. Crighton, was waiting with a Fleet training machine. They took off about 4.1b p.m. and arrived at Manaroa half an hour later.

Mr. Harvey's most serious injury was a cracked jaw bone. Medical attention took some time, however, and by the time the doctor was ready to leave it was nearly dark. A good take-off was made, and Mr. Crighton climbed the machine to a height of 4000 feet to ! get above the heavy clouds which were closing in, but he found that it was too dark to be sure of finding a safe way down later on, so he descended immediately and flew under the clouds to Picton. By this time, it was almost pitch dark, and flying through the Koromiko and Para Swamp Valleys the pilot was guided mainly by the lights of cars on the road below. Before leaving Manaroa he telephoned the> club's ground engineer, who' drove a car on to the flying field with the • headlights- indicating the direction of the wind, and, after circling the aerodrome, Mr. Crighton made a perfect landing. Mr. Harvey had a good night and his condition is satisfactory.

Strangely enough about four years ago Squadron-Leader Chandler, the Marlborough Aero Club's former instructor,1 flew a veterinary surgeon down'• to'-Manaroa .to .attend the same horse •by which ■ Mr. Harvey was injured yesterday.