AIR FORCE CRASHES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 111, 13 May 1939, Page 10

AIR FORCE CRASHES

FIVE MACHINES INVOLVED

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

Five Air Force machines have been damaged, two becoming total wrecks, this week. The tragic crash at Wigram on Thursday night, as the result of which three were killed, is the only case in which there has been loss of life but the combined damage must amount to thousands of pounds. In addition to a Blackburn Baffin machine which made a forced landing at Pigeon Bay on Wednesday and has, it is understood, been written off as a total loss there have been three other mishaps when landing. Yesterday, in a cross wind, a machine came to grief. The tip of the wing hit the ground with such force that the wing was wrenched practically off and the fabric was strained and damaged. On another day a machine, understood to be an Avro, hit the tower lines on the boundary of the Wigram Aerodrome but, by a fortunate chance, was not damaged and was able to land, although it brought with it trailing lengths of the line. Superficial damage was done to the undercarriage but repairs will not be costly. The remaining accident _ occurred when an aeroplane was taking off on a routine flight. It struck a wire fence, broke the tips of the propeller, and ripped to shreds the tyre of one wheel. Skilful piloting of the machine enabled it to land on one wheel and repairs are being effected. < . The intense heat generated in the fire which followed immediately in the wake of the crash of the Vickers Vildebeest machine on Thursday night reduced it to a mass of molten metal. It is presumed that the petrol tanks were punctured when the aeroplane hit the tree and that the petrol was sprayed in all directions co that, once ignited, it burned with the fury of a furnace. The rescue of the men then still alive was effected by one.of-the permanent staff in an asbestos suit, ( one of the ambulance and fire corps being ready for emergency such as this.