AIR TRAGEDY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 192, 29 July 1932, Page 8

AIR TRAGEDY

END TO PROMISING CAREER YOUNG PILOT'S DEATH. TWO OTHERS ALSO KILLED. London, July 27. The career of a young pilot who aspired to big things in aviation was er led tragically yesterday when Bruce Bossom, the 21-year-old son of Mr A. C. Bossom, Conservative M.P. for Maidstone, crashed near Churt, not far from the houses of Mr Lloyd George and Lord Snowden. Prince Otto of Erbach Fuerstenau and another passenger were also killed.

Bossom and a companion were taking Prince Otto as their guest on a pleasure flight from Heston to Southamp. ton and encountered bad weather. Only a few soldiers and pedestrians witnessthe accident. An officer of the Border Regiment saw the plane emerge from the clouds wingless, like a flying bedstead. He was horrified to see the fuselage break up and the bodies fall followed by the petrol tank. The bodies were widely separated when found several hundred feet from the wreckage and were so mutilated that they were only identifiable by articles in the pockets. It was reported just a week ago that Bossom was told by his parents that he must choose between breaking records and marriage, and decided upon the former course. He wanted to make records flights to Africa and Australia and to cross the Atlantic, and wanted also to marry Miss Odette Merard, daughter of a Knightsbridge dressmaker.

His mother did not object to the girl but said that Bruce, who was a promising pilot, could not rum his career bv marriage, as the former was the more important. He must concentrate on his career; afterwards he could marry whatever girl he liked. Mr Bossom at that time said: “People say that flying is dangerous. If Bruce is going to smash records he must be absolutely free.” The “News-Chronicle” calls attention to the extraordinary similarity between the Bossom crash and the Meopham disaster on July 21, 1931, when following an explosion, fragments fell from a thick cloud.

Mrs Bossom often went on flights with her son. Prince Otto, aged 23. was making his first visit to England.

It is believed that the crash was due to lightning striking the plane. Bossom narrowly escaped death in May, 1931, when he crashed in Cheshire and his machine took fire.