AIR CRASH VICTIMS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 235, 17 September 1934, Page 9

AIR CRASH VICTIMS

Extraordinary Sympathy

HALF-MILE CORTEGE

By Telegraph—Press Association. NEW PLYMOUTH, September 16.

The extraordinary sympathy aroused through the death of Messrs S. W. Green (pilot) and J. A .Austin in the air crash in the Fouakai Ranges on Thursday was exemplified at the funerals to-day. Both were popular young man. A cortege of cars half a mile long followed the hearse conveying the body of Mr Green to the cemetery. Mr Austin’s funeral was of a more private nature. PREVIOUS ACCIDENTS Ihe Loss of Five Lives There have been three fatal aeroplane mishaps in the past two years caused by the machines crashing into the side of a hill or mountain. In each case the accident was due to mist or fog. In March this year an Auckland Aero Club Moth struck a hill near the eastern slopes of Mount Hawkins, Wellington, and the pilot, Mr E. R. Boucher, president of the club, was killed, and Mr L. W, Swan, secretary, was seriously injured. There were lowlying clouds and fog shrouding the hillside at the time. Two lives were lost in a head-on crash into a hillside at Mouht Turiwhati, near Kumara, South Island, at the end of November last year, Mr J. D. Renton, the pilot, aud Mr J. D. Lynch, a former Mayor of Greymouth, being killed. The wreckage was located less than 100 ft. from the summit of Mount Turiwhati. 'The heavy fog reached to the level of the housetops in the district.

In October, 1932, the two occupants of a Wellington aeroplane, Mr F. Gresser, pilot, and Mr G. B. S. King, were killed when the machine struck the top of a hill near Tawa Flat, near Wellington, on a flight to Rongotai aerodrome from New Plymouth. The hills were covered in mist and rain was falling at the time.