AIR TRAVEL PLANE CRASH

Grey River Argus, 3 July 1944, Page 4

AIR TRAVEL PLANE CRASH

DIRECTOR & SECRETARY KILLED Five Others Injured ORDEAL OF SURVIVORS IN FOREST. RESCUE PARTY’S GRUELLING TASK. Crashing on to the bush-clad slopes of a saddle near Mount Hope, near Kawatiri, on Friday afternoon, the Air Travel (N.Z.) Ltd. twin-engined De Havilland Dragon, eight-passenger aeroplane, careered flown the hillside into an old creek bed, causing the death of Captain J. C. Mercer, Managing Director and Mr. M. Dawe, Secretary of the Company, and more or less seriously injuring the other five occupants. Mr. Dawe was killed outright, while Captain Mercer died of his injuries. A pioneer of aviation on the West Coast, the death of Captain Mercer removes a leading personality in the development of the province. Four other passengers in the ’plane, and. the pilot were conveyed to the Nelson Public Hospital, where they are now progressing satisfactorily. They are:— Flight Lieutenant P. C. Lewis, R.N.Z.A.F., Hokitika, pilot of the machine; head, chest and leg injuries./ Mrs. E. Russell, Westport; both legs broken.

Miss A. Patterson, Matron, Buller Hospital, Westport; broken leg. Mr. B. R. Perry, sales manager, McDuffs Ltd., Wellington; shock and fractured rib'.

Mr. G. M. Strathmore, general manager, McDuffs Ltd., Wellington; fractured skull.

The ’plane, ’which left Nelson for Westport at 1.11 p.m., was last seen over Glenhope, sixty miles south of Nelson, about half an hour later, being apparently in difficulties. It is thought that fog caused the pilot to turn the machine in order to make for an emergency landing field at Tophouse. ■ However, the ’plane was eventually forced down, as stated, about a mile north of Kawatiri and four miles south of Glenhope. It struck a patch of bush about 15 to 20 feet high on top of the saddle, somersaulted, ano crashed down a precipitous cliff into the bed of a creek. Though only about a mile and a-half from the mam road, the ’plane was surrounded by thick bush and a flooded creek made conditions worse. Mr. Perry and Flight Lieutenant Lewis, leaving Miss Patterson tending the injured, despite her broken leg, and administering morphia to relieve pain, set out to bring assistance. The fact that they fought their way in darkness through, the wet bush and along the flooded river bank with their injuries, testified to their powers of endurance. Mr. Lewis at times had to be assisted and Mr Perry)showed remarkable fortitude. Some of the way lay down a steep hillside. Lewis collapsed about fifty yards from the road, and Perry reached the highway about 10.15 p.m., after several hours’ travelling over some of the most rugged country in New Zealand. He was picked up by a transport driver, Mr. Arthur Hughes, who conveyed him to the Gowan Bridge Store, whence the police were notified. Immediately assistance was sent to Flight Lieutenant Lewis, who was found lying in u clearing in the bush. He was removed by stretcher. He and were then treated at the Murchison Hospital and were subsequently conveyed to Nelson. RESCUERS SET OUT. ; With rain, sleet and snow falling steadily, a rescue party comprising about thirty residents of the district was formed by Constable J. C. Moore of Murchison, and, with Dr. R. A. Lucas of Nelson in attendance, they set off into the bush. On the flat country, good progress was made, but the going became worse and worse as the party struggled through thick forest, over broken ground and skirted the flooded creek. As they encountered obstacle after obstacle, they marvelled that Perry and Lewis had ever been able to reach the road. SURVIVORS FOUND. Suddenly, at about 3.15 a.m. on Saturday, the party emerged from the bush into a clearing to find a tangled mass of wreckage which had been the aeroplane. Huddled under makeshift shelters comprised of parts of the machine, and strips of torn off fabric, and half frozen with the cold, were the surviving three passengers. The searchers were shocked to fina that Captain Mercer had succumbed to his injuries about an hour and ahalf previously. Dr. Lucas attended to the passengers on the spot, though little could be done beyond relieving pain, and they were then tied to stretchers preparatory to making the even more arduous journey back to the road. Though they did not have to hack their way as before, the rescue party had a trying experience in their efforts to convey the injured persons as comfortably as possible over the difficult terrain. Relays were organised to take the strain off the stretcher bearers, but it was nearly 7 a.m. before the injured reached the highway. There they received further treatment, Dr. Paul Kunzweil assisting, and were finally taken by ambulance to.the Nelson Hospital. INQUEST. An inquest was opened at Nelson, yesterday, into the deaths of Captain Mercer and Mr. Dawe, and was adjourned. Their bodies have been taken to Hokitika for burial to-mor-row. The Victims CAPTAIN MERCER’S NOTABLE RECORD. Captain James Cutbert Mercer, aged 58, founder, Managing-Director, and Chief Pilot to. Air Travel (N.Z) Ltd, had 12,000 flying hours to his credit, and it is estimated that he had flown a million and a-quarter miles. He was born in Dunedin, and' before the 1914-18 war conducted a cycle shop in Christchurch, and was in charge of the New Zealand Farmers’ Co-Op. garage there. In 1917, as a pupil of the Canterbury Aviation Co’s .flying school, founded by Sir Henry Wigram to train pilots for war service in the Royal Flying Corps, he secured his flying ticket, but instead of being sent overseas was kept on as an instructor. After the war the school’s planes were used to give pleasure flights to people in many parts of Canterbury, and Captain Mercer was associated with this venture, and with the mail and passenger air service which, in 1921, the company ran for a short time between Christchurch and' Timaru. He then joined the New Zealand Aero Transport Co. He made

one of the earliest flights across Cook Strait, and also made one of the most notable early cross-country flights when, in October 1921, he took a D.H.-9 plane with two passengers from Timaru to Auckland in 9 hours. Captain Mercer became first pilot instructor to the newly-formed Canterbury Aero Club in Mav 1929, and five years later founded Air Travel (N.Z.) Ltd., with headquarters at Hokitika. He took a leading part in breaking down the isolation of settlers in the far south, with both passenger and mail services, and was often able to bring to hospital in a few hours sick persons who might otherwise have had to spend several dayts on the journey. He also helped on several occasions in searches for missing parties of mountaineers and others. Captain Mercer leaves his wife, who lives at Hokitika, two daughters, Miss Marie Mercer, of the staff of Air Travel (N.Z.) Ltd, Hokitika, and Mrs. C. Douglas (Christchurch), one sister, Mrs. R. Owen (Adelaide), and one bi other, Charles B. Mercer (Wellington). Mr. Maurice Dawe, who was aged 36. was manager of the firm of Wild, Wilkinson, and Dawe, accountants, of Hokitika, and manager of the South Westland Shipping Company, besides being secretary of Air Travel (N.Z.) Ltd. He was auditor to the Hokitika Golf Club and a member of the Masonic Lodge. Born and educated at Christchurch, he came to Hokitika six and a half years ago to enter the business of R. Wild and Co. which he took over on the death of Mr. Wild. He was married and his wife takes part in his business. He ha'd no family. Besides his wife he leaves his father and mother Mr. and Mrs. C. R. A. Dawe (Auckland), four sisters, Mrs. O. Scott (Christchurch), Mrs. N. Freeman (Wellington), Miss Gwyneth Dawe and Miss Peggy Dawe (Auckland). and three brothers, Geoffrey and Dudley (Christchurch) and Alan (Waitaki). The funeral of the two victims of the crash will take place at Hokitika Cemetery to-morrow afternoon, leaving from the premises of Air Travel at Hokitika aerodrome.

Tribute to Captain Mercer BY HON.. F. JONES. A GREAT PIONEER OF N.Z. AVIATION. p.A. WELLINGTON, July 2. Hon. F. Jones, Minister of Defence, paid a tribute to the late Mr. J. C. Mercer. Mr. Jones said that Mr. Mercer had been the means of opening up what had hitherto been a little known area of New Zealand—the west coast of the South Island. New Zealand acknowledged her debt to Mr. Mercer. The foundations which he had laid would endure for all time, and on them would be built, by a younger generation of New Zealanders the future air transportation system of the Dominion. The late Mr. Mercer had commenced flying in 1917. 'He had completed some eleven thousand hours of successful flying as a pilot. He was widely known for his advocacy and practice of those principles and methods which had contributed so much to the in-' creased safety of civil flying. It •was in 1931 that Mr. Mercer, with a Moth aircraft, hired from the Canterbury Aero Club, undertook the first pioneer and exploratory flights in Westland, and it was from survey flights which he made, with Mr. John Wood, former Engineer-in-Chief of the Public Works Department that the road routes through South Westland, which were under construction at the outbreak of the war, were established. Following similar exploratory work, Mr. Mercer was instrumental in founding New Zealand’s first major air transport company to open this region. He remained the chief pilot and manager. for Air Travel (New Zealand) Limited at the time of his death. SERVICE SUSPENDED. P.A. NELSON, July 2. 4 Mr. G. H. Chapman, Chairman of Directors of Air Travel (N.Z.) Lta., stated yesterday that t'he Nelson-Ho-kitika service could not be resumed for two weeks, as the Company’s other ’plane suitable for that service, was at present undergoing an overhaul ar Rongotai. The service from Hokitika southwards would be continued as usual.

Mr. Chapman visited the scene of th e crash yesterday. He said that the ’plane was a complete wreck. The machine had crashed on a saddle, about 3,500 feet high.. The face on which the ’plane landed is not particularly steep, and is covered with sparce bush, which apparently cushioned the shock of the crash and more or less eased the machine over the crest of the ridge. It was the fall over the ridge which smashed the ’plane to pieces and the passengers were tossed out as it rolled down the hillside. The mac’hine had been in use only six months, though not equipped with wireless, and it is doubtful whether it is worth salvage.