GRIM FLYING TRAGEDY

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 12876, 1 June 1936, Page 3

GRIM FLYING TRAGEDY

COLLISION IN MID-AIR According to evidence at a double inquest in the aerodrome at Grantham, Lincolnshire, recently, so violent were a mid-air collision and the subsequent explosion that the parachute of one of the victims opened and carried the dead body to earth. In all ' probability the intense concussion > automatically “pulled” the rip cord. 1 Tho men dead a,vero: Acting Pitot. Officer G. R. (’.'George, aged 21, of Hove; and Leading Aircraftsman P. G J. Pugh, a native on Alontnoutbshirc-. b Both Avore under instruction at No. 3 c Flying Training School and each had had experience of solo flying in 1 “teacher” aeroplanes and in service type machines. They went up in separate machines ■ to practice steep and medium turns and landings, and in tho opinion of ~ exports they must have been killed in- - stonily aa lien the aeroplanes collided. s James TTuekerby, foreman plate- , layer stated that he saw tho two I machines at approximately 100!) feet. I travelling in opposite directions. They hanked and Hum seemed to fly 1o each oilier. There was an explosion, and i one of the aoropjaides corkscrewed to £ tho ground. He saw a pilot coming s rlown by para cl mio and apparently ’ make a perfect landing’, i 1 flickerin' ran to Aviioro Dm first f machine crashed and found Pugh dead in tho cockpit.. He then loolccd for 1 the man with the parachute, and ’ found him in a Avond lying dead on the ’ ground, with his parachute lodged in 1 tho trees. A verdict of accidental • death was returned in each ease.