STOLEN PLANE CRASHES

Evening Star, Issue 21709, 2 May 1934, Page 8

STOLEN PLANE CRASHES

YOUNG MEN PLEAO GUILTY TO THEFT COMMITTED FOR SENTENCE [Per United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, May 2. Two shabbily dressed young men, William George Davis, aged twenty, and Charles Young aged eighteen, both farm labourers, appeared in the Onehunga Police Court to-day charged with the theft of an aeroplane valued at £1,200, the property of the Auckland Aero Club also with the theft of seventeen gallons of benzine, a tin of paint, flying equipment, a. pea rifle and tools, ete. , x The prosecuting detective said that the accused had walked from Matamata' looking for work, and for about a week had been sleeping out. It was while watching activities at the Man gore aerodrome that they made up their minds to steal one of the planes. They slept in a nearby haystack till midnight. They then got the machine out of the hanger, and with Young at the controls set off with the intention of flying to Norfolk Island on route to Australia. Fortunately for them they crashed in a nearby siyamp, otherwise their adventure must have ended in a tragedy. The aero club engineer said that the plane was damaged to the extent of £75 or £IOO. Tho accused pleaded guilty and were committed for sentence. An application was made to the court that they be kept separate from other prisoners on account of their age.