TRAILING ROPE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 8, 11 January 1944, Page 4

TRAILING ROPE

UNUSUAL AIR ACCIDENT The breaking away of a towed air target led to the accident reported from Melbourne recently when two picnickers, a girl and a man, lost their feet as the result of being caught by the trailing wire towing cable. The girl was cut down by the cable, which severed one leg above the ankle and the other above the knee. The man became entangled in the rope, and was dragged along the beach for some distance. One foot was severed and the other was so badly injured that it had to be amputated. The victims were Noreen Cullen, 17, Reeves Street, Sale, and Hector Luxford, 53, Cunningham Street, v Sale, wood merchant. They are both 'danIgerously ill in hospital. They had arrived at Seaspray only a quarter of an hour before the acciI dent, to attend a sports carnival on i the beach. I After striking the picnickers the . | cable snapped and fell from the plane, and, as it swished across the sand, it burned the legs and hands and seared the clothes of those who were not quick enough to get out of the way. It also cut through a line held by a man fishing from a bank. Air Force and civilian doctors, with a party of nurses, had to travel 23 miles from Sale with medical supplies to attend to the injured. Luxford and Miss Cullen had to be given blood transfusions at Seaspray before they could be moved to the Sale Hospital. Of five others slightly injured only two required hospital treatment. Two gifls and a man were given first-aid treatment on the beach. - . The plane, a training aircraft, was returning to its aerodrome after target practice. A target which the plane Jiad been towing had come off the wire, and the pilot was apparently unaware . that the rope was dragging on . the beach. He was placed under arrest , -,; pending an official inquiry. •