FLYING-BOAT DISASTER

Hawera Star, Volume L, 6 February 1931, Page 3

FLYING-BOAT DISASTER

NINE KILLED AT PLYMOUTH PILOT MISTAKES WATER LEVEL MEN TRAPPED ]N FUSELAGE. (United Press Association--By Electric Telegraph Copyrisrttj. LONDON, Feb. 4. Nine were tibled to-day when the Royal Air Force Blackburn Iris tripleengined flying-boat attached 'to the I Mountbatteii air station with twelve aboard crashed in Plymouth Sound. The machine struck the water with terrific force, an explosion following. The victims included the pilot, WingCommander, C. Tucker, who was trapped in tli© cabin and quickly drowned. Horrified witnesses saw the flyingboat crash 150 yards, from shore.. They quickly rushed to the spot. It is belived the pilot descending mistook the water level owing to the sun in his -\ves. Diving operations were begun. Those killed are the pilot of the machine (Wing-Commander- Tucker), Fly-ing-Officer Wood, Sergeant-Pilot E. Wil son, Leading Air Craftsman W, I Stark, L. Oates, M. Onglev, W. Rutledge, W. Stevens and CL Davies.

Two officers were injured, one of them seriously. A non-commissioner officer alone escaped uninjured. The machine was about to. alight. Reports state the course was altered to avoid a small boat and the machine’s tilting wing touched the water. A motor-boat rushed to the scene ; aid rescued the survivors' before the machine sank with the other occupants trapped in the fuselage. The flyingboat, which was of metal construction, was one of the largest and fastest ol its type and was equipped with three engines.

Aeronautic experts enfphasisel the well-known danger of misjudging the distance from smooth water. Such misiudgment aocounted for the death of the Schneider Cup flier Flight-Lieuten-ant Kinkhead in 1929. Diving from a speed attempt lie failed to flatten cut. >A comparatively small change ol' angle in the descent would have turned to-day’s disaster into merely a had landing. The flying-boat came down*to water-level at a speed exceeding the usual landing speed of fifty-two miles an hour. Normally it would have settied down oil the surface as it lost flying speed; instead it drove into the water at 60 miles an hour and an angle of twenty degrees, behind which was a weight of 13 tons. The force of the collision may well be imagined. Wing Commander Tucker was rendered unconscious b-v the impact and was carried; down. Officer Ely in the first pilot’s seat escaped, while (Officer Ryley in the forward gun cockpit and Officer Barry in the aft cockpit rose to the surface. Th© remainder, not warned of the danger, found exit impossible. Divers discovered Rutledge’s bodv.

The flying-boat was broken m halves ns it was salvaged. Th e fore part was brought up but there were no bodies in it. The remainder lies in deep water. The wings dropped off following at-to-vnts to reis© the liffll. The worst previous accident was at Baghdad in 1926 when seven were, killed i" a troop-carrier crash. Ely was in the first pilot’s seat but Commander Tucker who was under in- 1 stiuctions in th© second seat had taken •over to land l the flying-boat.