26 KILLED IN TWO AIR CRASHES

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 August 1949, Page 5

26 KILLED IN TWO AIR CRASHES

LONDON, August 19 (Rec. 10.10 a.m.).— Twenty-six people were killed in two air disasters today. Twenty-two were killed and eight injured when a Dakota -crashed near Oldham and four were killed when an aircraft disintegrated in. mid-air near Shipley, in Yorkshire. • The Dakota, belonging to British European Airways, was on a schedule flight from Belfast to Manchester. There were 32 persons aboard, including the crew of four. A British European Airways spokesman said the Dakota burst into

flames after crashing. Workers from a paper mill found the dead and injured near the plane, which came down on Saddleworth Moors, about five miles from Oldham. The Dakota ran into dense mist while apparently trying to find the Manchester airport and crashed with a report that could be heard for miles. Several passengers, with their clothes on fire, staggered out of the wreckage. Some of the passengers , are believed to have been trapped in the wreckage and some of the more seriously injured died after being rescued. The plane, which disintegrated near Shipley, was a Proctor owned by the Lancashire Aircraft Corporation. It was on a test flight and the four killed were all employees of the company. Eye-witnesses said a wing fell off and the plane caught fire and crashed in a cornfield.