Crash at Blenheim

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 150, 10 June 1936, Page 5

Crash at Blenheim

PLANE WRECKED Pilot-Instructor and Pilot Unhurt MACHINE WITH HISTORY (By Telegraph—Press Association.) BLENHEIM, June 10. The Dominion's first aero club machine, the Moth ZKAAA, belonging to the Marlborough Aero Club, was wrecked this morning as a result of a forced landing in the front garden of a house near the municipal aerodrome. The accident occurred in the course of a training flight. The pilot-instructor, Squad-ron-Leader N. E. Chandler, was accompanied by a pupil pilot, Mr A. Griffin, of Nelson. Both escaped injury. Shortly after taking-off Squadron Leader Chandler discovered that the rudder control was inoperative. He elected to effect a quick landing in a nearby paddock. Trees in the vicinity necessitated a sharp descent and the machine struck a wire fence. Eye-witnesses state that the plans bounced into the air almost in front of the house of Mr J’. B. Porter and caught a service electric line, which it brought down, ripping a large board off the house. Miraculously tho live wires did not ignite Hie plane, which crashed in an inverted position a few feet from the cottage. The occupants struggled from the wreckage without even a scratch. Tho plane broke its back at the cockpits, while the wings were spreadeagled. Tho damaged machine has an interesting history, as it was a gift from Baron Wakefield to New Zealand in 1929. It was allotted by the Government to the Marlborough Club. Subsequently Squadron-Leader Chandler effected a forced landing in it in the sea at Ship’s Cove, Charlotte Sound. The plane has been rebuilt several times after smashes and little of the original machine remains except the identification letters, which were the first issued under the present system. )