WAIROA ’PLANE CRASH

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 258, 14 October 1932, Page 5

WAIROA ’PLANE CRASH

APPEAL COURT CASE. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Oct, 14. In the Appeal Court case Dominion Airlines v. Strand, counsel for the respondent, Mr Cleary, submitted that the grant of a pilot's license was not a matter of right but lay in the discretion of the Air Board, who could refuse a license on any proper ground. The appellant’s whole argument was based on the ground that a medical examination was the only thing standing between Kight and his B certificate, enabling him to carry passengers. However, the Director of Ajr Services considered Kight unfit to be a commercial pilot. Kight was suffering from neurasthenia, a form of disability, which indicated that absence of nervous stability demanded by the air regulations. The fact that the company had been guilty of a distinct breach of the regulations in allowing a 'plane to be flown by a pilot not holding a B license cast the onus on the appellant company of proving there was no connection between the breach of the regulations and the accident.