CRASH IN FOG

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 31, 6 February 1943, Page 4

CRASH IN FOG

UNION AIRWAYS LINER

WONDERFUL ESCAPE

(P.A.) DUNEDIN, February 5. Carrying nine passengers in addition to the pilot and co-pilot, and a quantity of mail, the Union Airways interisland aeroplane Kuaka crashed on the side of Flagstaff Hill shortly after 8 o'clock this morning when leaving Dunedin for the north, in heavy mist and rain. Visibility was almost nil, and the. port wing grazed the side of a ridge, causing the plane to swerve round and land in a patch of tall gorse. The passengers and pilots had a miraculous escape, as the locality is strewn with boulders and stumps and is broken with small gullies and depressions. Fortunately the plane was brought to an even keel before landing, and it did not overturn. The only injuries suffered were bruises and cuts, but the engines and port wing of the plane were extensively damaged. The occupants of the plane were Pilot A. T. Orchard, Co-pilot A. I. Hadfield, with the following passengers: Mrs. B. J. Gilchrist, Mrs. T. J. Holland, Mr. W. G. Fernie, and Mr. R. T. Simpson, for Christchurch; Miss N. Ferguson, Miss M. Munro, Mr. W. Stevenson, and Mr. R. Smith, for Wellington, and Mr. G. F. Booth, manager of the Dunedin branch of the Union Steam Ship Company, Ltd., for Auckland. . . I Mr. Hadfield received head injuries which necessitated hospital observation on his arrival in the city. Mr. Booth received a cut on the head and Mr. Smith an injury to an eye. The other occupants escaped with only slight abrasions and shock. Royal New Zealand Air Force guards have been posted over the damaged machine. It will be impossible to fly it, even if repaired, from its present position. Arrangements were made for the mail carried on the plane to be taken by the north-bound airliner leavmg Dunedin tomorrow morning. The cessation of radio signals from j the plane was the first intimation that there had been an accident, and a search was at once begun over a wide area. Residents in the vicinity of Wakarij and Flagstaff stated that they had heard a plane circling overhead and then noticed that the sound had stopped abruptly, but no information as to precise location was forthcoming till Mr. Stevenson and Mr.' Simpson had made their ways by different routes to nearby telephones. The police party met Mr. Stevenson at the homestead from which he had telephoned, and, guided by him, made its way towards the plane. In the meantime the mist had become so dense that it was impossible to retrace his route directly, and it was not till after an hour and a half that the plane was seen during a temporary lifting of the mist Mr. Simpson had meantime reached another telephone and parties from the Air Force, Army, and Public Works and Electricity Department, as well as residents of the district, were soon making their way to the scene, while ambulances and other vehicles waited at the nearest road. When the police arrived at the machine all the passengers were in good humour, though some were suffering from the shock of their experience. Mrs. Holland had rendered first aid to those injured, and all luggage and mail had been removed as a precaution against fire. Members of the medical section of the Air Force attended to the injured, and within a few minutes of the discovery of the plane passengers and searchers were on their way down the hill. At Halfway Bush power station the passengers and pilots were picked up by cars and taken to the city.