AERIAL LOVE DRAMA

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 December 1936, Page 2

AERIAL LOVE DRAMA

WOMAN SHOOTS PILOT FLIGHT AFTER LANDING [BY CABLE —PBESS ASSN. —COPYBIGHT.] (Recd. December 21, 1 p.m.) PARIS, December 20. After taking off from the Villa Coublay aerodrome, a plane unsteadily landed on a field near Trappes, but took off again as a passing motorist rushed up and found the pilot staggering about with a bullet wound in the neck. He was taken to the hospital at Versailles, where he stated that a woman passenger, as the result of a love quarrel, shot him in the back. Both had quitted the machine on landing, but she re-entered it and flew off. FRENCHWOMAN INJURED MARSEILLES, December 19. The French airwoman, Mlle. Maryse Hilaz. was seriously injured when she jumped in a parachute from an aeroplane in which she hoped to break speed and altitude records. The machine was wrecked. Mlle. Hilaz went up in the hope of beating the woman’s speed record of 276 miles an hour. She says she reached 2000 feet, and began her attempt on the record. She was travelling at 280 miles an hour when she was caught in the mistral a violent northerly wind —and the machine went into a dive. “I don’t know whether I jumped out or whether I was thrown out. but the parachute opened immediately. I descended in a lagoon. The parachute dragged me across the lagoon at seven miles an hour until I was rescued by fishermen.” Mlle Hilaz broke two ribs. grocertFsuicide. SAN ANTONIO (Texas), Dec. 19. A grocer, aged 24, hired an aeroplane and instructed the pilot to circle above the store. He leaped from the aeroplane at a height of 3,500 feet. The body went through the roof, ceiling and floor of a bungalow, breaking the gas main under the floor. Two women and a baby had a narrow escape. The body crashed through the diningroom a few’ feet from where they sat. The grocer was suffering from an ear infection. This was the only explanation his family could offer. U.S.A. PLANES SALT LAKE CITY, December 19. While the search continues for the Western Air Express which has been missing since December 16, a second aeroplane, with its crew but no passengers, is reported missing. It was heard from last 24 hours ago. The machine is oelieved to be down in Northern Idaho. (Recd. Dec. 21, 8 a.m.). NEW YORK, December 20. Lost in a storm of rain and snow, a transport plane with eleven aboard made a forced landing on the mountainside. The pilot Merrill, landed with such skill that no passengers were injured. He was scratched and lost a tooth.

JEAN BATTEN. WELLINGTON, December 21. Jean Batten and Mrs. Batten returned from Sydney by the Awatea, which arrived this morning. Flight Lieut. A. T. Nevill, who was in England as liasion officer, and to complete his training, also arrived to take up the post of staff officer to the Director of New Zealand Air Services. RESEARCH IN N.Z. AUCKLAND, December 21. To carry out research work at Auckland, in preparation for the proposed Pacific air service, four members of the technical staff of PanAmerican Airways arrived by the Niagara, from Vancouver, this afternoon. Harold Catty, the New Zealand and Australian representative; A. Francis, meteorologist; W. T. Jarvoc, radio expert, and M. M. Thompson, ground engineer, will be in New Zealand for several months, preparing data. ■ l 7 . i «