STRUCK ROCK FACE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 111, 13 May 1942, Page 6

STRUCK ROCK FACE

LOST AIRLINER

APPEARS BURNT OUT

(F.A.) BLENHEIM, This Day. Further aerial reconnaissances appear to establish that the Lockheed ' airliner which crashed at Mount Richmond, between here and Nelson, on Thursday, burned out after colliding with a steep rock face in the thick weather. The ground party which is proceeding to the scene is not expected to reach the wrecked plane until this afternoon. There has been no news since the parties from Blenheim and Nelson joined forces yesterday afternoon and established a base camp at the Langley Dale Station, on the banks of the Wairau River. After collecting the personnel. and the considerable quanity of equipment required for such an expedition into rough country, the parties had only time to set up camp before dark last night. The journey was resumed before dawn this morning, but although the party is accompanied by military signallers, it is unlikely to communicate with Blenheim until the wreck has been examined. ROUGH COUNTRY APPROACH. It is understood that the location of the wreckage has been clearly established, and that the party will be able to make directly for it, but over rough going^ and .may be back at the base camp late today. Since the discovery of the wreckage by Flying, Officer J. Strand and an airman pilot" during a training flight yesterday morning other machines have flown over the scene at a low altitude in improved weather. Despite a light sprinkling of snow, examination from the air discloses that the fuselage is "blackened as if gutted by fire. Tlie plane. evidently . struck the north-east shoulder of Mount Richmond at an altitude of about 5000 feet,-colliding with a rocky cliff and then falling some distance down hill.