AVIATION ACCIDENTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 December 1928, Page 9

AVIATION ACCIDENTS.

THREE IN AUSTRALIA

TWO MEN BURNT TO DEATH

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.) Received 11.55 a.m. to-day. MELBOURNE, Dec. 27. After spinning several times in the air at a height of 300 feet, a Moth aeroplane nose-dived and crashed at Essendon. The machine instantly burst into flames, and Brian Rhodes (aged 24), the pilot, and Alfred Heaton (aged 18), the passenger, were burnt to death. The flames were so fierce that the machine was almost in ashes before the spectators reached it. It was impossible to extricate the bodies of the victims until the fire died down. Rhodes was regarded as one of the cleverest pilots in the Mel-; bourne section of the Aero Club. The scene of the accident is a re-' mote area of grass paddocks, and 10 minutes elapsed before the people arrived. A STALLED ENGINE. SYDNEY, Dec. 26. Norman Littlejohn (owner-pilot) and Robert Francis (mechanic) were seriously injured when a plane crashed at Wagga owing to the engine stalling when taking off. The plane missed a house by inches, and crashed into a fence. ACCIDENT WHEN LANDING. SYDNEY, Dec. 26 Mr. Keith Anderson, piloting a Ryan monoplane with three passengers, when landing at Saint Mary’s speedway to-day, ran into a channel. One wheel was stripped and the machine severely damaged, though the occupants were unhurt.