AVIATION ACCIDENTS

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 19 October 1925, Page 5

AVIATION ACCIDENTS

FATALITIES REPORTED.

’PLANE CATCHES FIRE. THREE PERSONS KILLED. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT., , ; (Received Oct. 19, 10.15 a.m.) NEW YORK, Oct. 18. An army aviator named Burgess was conveying Mr Hutton, a journalist, and Mr Timmerman, a photographer, employed by the Ohio Herald, to view the aviation races at Selfridge Field, when engine trouble necessitated a descent. The machine struck a tree, caught lire, and all three were killed by the fall or, burned to death. —Sydney Sun Cable. THREE CRASHES IN BRITAIN A CURIOUS INCIDENT. LONDON, Oct. 17. A .French goliath 'plane, engaged in the Paris to London service, while carrying seven passengers, crashed at Tunbridge Wells in a dense fog this afternoon. Three were injured, one fatally. The pilot, who was not injured, found himself unable to continue the journey to Croydon owing to the thickness of the fog, and tried to land in an open field, when the ’plane struck a tree, overturnedi-and hit the ground with terrific force. , A second ’plane smash occurred at Wilton, where a pilot. of the officers’ branch, named Ballantyne, was killed while flying for observation purposes. Heavy rain fell and the signals from fin; aerodrome were apparently not observed. The machine flew low, evidently seeking- a landing place, ■when it developed a "spin” and crashed. A third curious accident occurred at Weymouth. A naval seaplane was acting as target for anti-aircraft practice when the propellor fell off. The ’plane dropped rapidly for a thousand feet and made a forced landing on the water. The pilot was rescued. The authorities scout the idea that the ’plane was hit by shrapnel.