KING ZOG’S GUESTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 May 1938, Page 7

KING ZOG’S GUESTS

KILLED IN AERIAL CRASH PLANE STRIKES MOUNTAIN [BY CABLE—PRESS ASSN.—COPYRIGHT.\ (Recd. May 2, 8 a.m.) LONDON, May 1. Carrying 19 passengers, including guests at King Zog’s wedding, an airliner returning to Rome from Tirana is missing. Lt was last reported taking off from Brindisi. It that it crashed in the mountains near Formia. LATER. A message from Formia says the plane was returning to Rome from Tirana, and crashed on a mountainNineteen were killed, mostly members of the Albanian Legation, returning to Rome from King Zog’s wedding. The controllers of the Rome-Tirana service are withholding the passenger Ijst, but it is known the Albanian Minister to Italy is among the killed. One passenger is believed’ to be British. His name is given as Samuel Rotoss. The plane caught fire when it crashed. ,AH the bodies were , badly burnt. N. ZEALANDER’S BROKEN NECK LONDON, April 30. At the inquest into the death of the New Zealand airman, Colin Byar, who died from injuries received in an ajr accident, the medical evidence showed that Byar lived for three days with a broken neck. The hearing was adjourned pending an inquiry by the Air Ministry. DUTCH SERVICE. AMSTERDAM, April 30. It is officially announced that the Dutch K-L-M air line will start a biweekly service between Batavia and Sj'dney on the afternoon of July 3. The Lockheed machine which is to make the initial journey will arrive at Sydney on the afternon of July 5, and will return on the following day. MACHINE HITS HAYSTACK. CHRISTCHURCH, May 2. After hitting a haystack near Wigram aerodrome shortly before 10 o’clock on Saturday night and almost completely wrecking his machine, E. J. Speight, a member of the Marlborough Aero Club, clambered from the wreckage unhurt except for a slight cut on his forehead. Speight was doing a test night flight' for his examination for a commercial pilot’s licence and glided down too soon as he approached the aerodrome from the south. The under-carriage struck the top of one haystack and the machine slid over the top of it and came to rest.on its side between the two stacks.

Both wings were ripped off and were completely wrecked, the undercarriage was hopelessly damaged and the fuselage. of the aeroplane also suffered. The engine was the drily part of the machine which can certainly be made use of again. The. aeroplane was a Canadian Fleet two-seater training biplane belonging to the Marlborough Club, which Speight flew down from Blenheim on Wednesday. - Saturday first night during which the weather was sufficiently clear to hold the . test, which was observed by examining officers of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Speight, who received his initial training at Blenheim, had completed the necessary number of hours flying for. his commercial licence and had also passed-‘the written examination and the blind-flying test. The night flight,’ which had to be of half an hour’s duration, was the final test for the granting of his licence. The instructor, ground engineer, secretary, and a member of the committee of the Marlborough Club flew down from Blenheim yesterday in the Club’s Waco machine and inspected the wreckage, which was later loaded bn to a motor-lorry for return to Blenheim to-day. The officials of. the club returned to Blenheim yesterday afternoon by air.

PARACHUTIST’S NEW RECORD CHRISTCHURCH, May 1. ... G. W. Sellars made a parachute jump from a height of 9800 feet over Wigram aerodrome to-day, breaking the New Zealand record he himself established at Mangere aerodrome, Auckland, last October.