MOTH PLANE TRAGEDY

Evening Star, Issue 20079, 21 January 1929, Page 1

MOTH PLANE TRAGEDY

TWO YOUNG PfIEH KILLED After .spinning several limes In the an- I min ;i heighl of dUUit, a Moth aerophmo noiso-flived. crashed to the ground, and hurst into liniucs at Essendun, Melbourne, on Boxing Day. The pilot and a passenger, who were apparently killed iiishwitly, were burned almost beyond recognition. Their names were: Brian Rhodes, aged twenty-one, motor salesman, and Allred Heaton, aged eighteen, mechanic. Rhodes left the Essendon aerodrome shortly after a o’clock in the afternoon in a He Havihind Moth aeroplane. Heaton, who was a frequent visitor to the aerodrome, had persuaded Rhodes to take him tor a (light. According tu the stories of several eye-witnesses the aeroplane had been in the air for only a lew minutes, when it ,swerved suddenly and descended in a scries of spirals over an upon paddock near the aerodrome. Suddenly the machine nose-dived and crashed lo the ground. Tor .sonic seconds it was completely obscured by dense smoke, and then liereo Haines burst from it. Several people rushed to the paddock, but by the time they had arrived—about ten minutes after the accident—the aeroplane had been practically destroyed and the pilot and the passenger were death Mr William Williams, of Ascot Vale, who saw the accident, said that there, was a more than usually heavy discharge from the csi must pipe at the beginning of the spin. He saw a spurt of (lame from some part of the engine just before the piano dived to the ground. Brian Rhodes was the only son of Mr J. S. Rhodes, managing director of Rhodes Motor Co. Piy., JLAd. After leaving school no went to the United States for business experience. He was an enthusiastic member of the Australian Aero Club, Victorian section. He held a pilot’s license. Heaton was a mechanic employed by the State Electricity Commission. He was advised two days before his death flint he had been accepted as a candidate for admittance to the Royal Australian Air 'Force.