PLANES GROUNDED

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 January 1947, Page 8

PLANES GROUNDED

GOVERNMENT ORDER TO FAR

EAST COMPANY

SEQUEL TO FATAL CRASH

MANILA, January 14. Following the crash on Saturday of a Skymaster ’ airliner in which six lives were lost and from which three schoolboys were rescued, the Philippines Government has ordered the Ear Hast Air Transport Company, to ground all its aircraft pending an. investigation. The Government made a charge that the company had disregarded the remhations, in spite of a warning issued after one of its aircraft crashed on December 13. Colonel Jesus Villamor, .who is head of the Government Aeronautics Bureau, reported that the Skymaster’s pilot and also the chief mechanic and his assistant did not r.-fid valid licences. The radio operators ako were not licensed. Further; morn, the company had failed to test ■he aircraft without passengers after changing an engine at Shanghai. FAULTY INSTRUMENTS BLAMED FOR SHANNON CRASH LONDON, January 15. FauHv instruments, showing an incorrect height of 500 feet, were plampfi at the inquest on the 13 victims ofthe Constellation airliner’s crash at Shannon on December 27. The pilot, Captain Herbert Tansey, and the co-pilot, Mr. Clifford Sparrow, who are Americans, -both testified to this. Captain Tansey said it was the first time he had ever heard of an altimeter error of that type. (Two of the Constellation’s three altimeters, found in'the wreckage, still showed a 1 height of more than 500 feet.)