AMAZING ESCAPE

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 13 November 1935, Page 10

AMAZING ESCAPE

’PLANE ON FIRE IN AIR CRASH INTO MOUNTAIN GORGE MACHIN E COMPLETELY WRECKED - SYDNEY, Nov. 7. An aviator who was associated with a daring flight from Sydney to New Zealand lust year, Mr Hex Nieholl, was a participant in an even more remarkable aerial adventure-.this wee.-;. A Moth machine in which he was Hying from Mudgee to Sydney caught, tiro when over the Blue Mountains, and Nieholl was forced to land it m a gorge. The aeroplane was wrecked, but Nieholl and a companion, Mr. Albert Needham, suffered only a few scratches. “We are lucky to be alive,” said Nieholl afterwards. “The Tasman flight was a joyride compared with it.”

“We had passed over Lithgow,” Nieholl stated, in telling of the adventure, “and were travelling along about 2000 ft. up over the worst country I have ever seen—terrific gorges and dense trees. Suddenly a pipe, leading to the oil gauge on the dashboard broke just behind the engine. Oil was pumped everywhere and some of it came in contact with the redhot exhaust pipe, X was in the front seat. We had dual controls fitted and were flying in turn. I will never forget how .1 felt when I saw flames stream out, with a cloud of smoke, from under the engine cowling, You could have bought my chance of life for a shilling. ; STARTED TO SPIN “There was only one thing to do—throw the machine over in a steep side-slip and try to wipe the fire out. I did that and we slipped down more than a IOOOft. Needham was pumping the fire extinguisher at the engine flames from the back of the cockpit. I was holding the nose up in the sideslip, and suddenly the aeroplane started to spin. I just managed to check the spin as we were getting down near the tree-tops. Then I saw a rough patch of clearing. It seemed to have been placed there by Providence. There was just a chance wo would survive.

„ “I made a turn so steep that the machine was almost stalled. It then slipped down over the trees. We sat down hard, ran forward about 25vds., and hit a. mound of earth and rock. The under-carriage was torn straight out, the Moth tilted first on one wing, then on the other * and pitched over on her nose, both wings being wrecked and the propeller smashed off. I had unbuckled the belt, thinking that there might have been a chance of leaping when we strucK, and I fell out. “I was dazed at first. Then I collected my senses, and my companion, whom 1 was amazed to see unhurt, decided we had to do something right away. We took the compass out of the wreck, climbed a tree, and from its branches, saw a red scar on a hill miles away, which looked like a road. We set a course and started to walk.

BANDAGES FROM PYJAMAS “My head was bleeding, and I tore up my pyjamas and made bandages out of them. We crossed four or five gorges. We had had nothing to eat since the night before, and could not find water. All we had was two small packets of chewing gum.” After walking about six miles, Nicholl and Needham came upon the point they had set out for, and found it to be the branch railway from Newnes to Newnes Junction. They followed the line for about four miles to Newnes Junction. A ganger’s wife gave them food and drink, and bandaged Nicholl’s wound. Niclioll later communicated with his mother, who was at Katoomba, and she travelled out by car and drove them to Katoom ba. The fire went out when the aeroplane landed, and to-day the wrecked machine lies in an almost inaccessible mountain gorge. 'lt belonged to Mr. Needham, who bought it new only a few months ago. Mr Rex Nieholl, of Sydney, and a young New Zealander, Mr *R. G. Whitehead, flew the Tasman Sea oii November 22, 1934. For a time it was thought they were lost as nothing was heard of the machine for 24 hours after it left Gerringong Beach, New South Wales. They landed unexpectedly at Mangero aerodrome, Auckland, having made a landfall in North Auckland and spent the night at East Beach, south of Houhora Heads.