FORCED LANDING.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 11 May 1939, Page 8

FORCED LANDING.

MISHAP TO LIGHT AIR FORCE BOMBER NEITHER OCCUPANT INJURED By Telegraph— Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night. A forced landing was made by a Blackburn Baffin light bomber belonging to the Royal New Zealand Air Force, at Pigeon's Bay, Bank's Peninsula, about noon to-day. The two occupants, Pilot-Officer W. A. Hopkins, the pilot, and Pilot-Officer E. Grant, navigator, both of Christchurch, were not injured. The machine, which landed on the edge of the beach and turned over in the surf, was badly damaged. The two officers, who are members of the Territorial Air Force, are attending a course of instruction at the Flying Training School at Wigram. They left Wigram Aerodrome this morning cn a navigation exercise, course being to Timaru and back to Wigram via Akaroa. They were due to return to the station at mid-day and as they had not put in an appearance at that time aeroplanes were sent out to look for them. When the missing machine was located the aeroplanes returned to Wigram and 10 minutes later Mr. Hopkins telephoned the station informing the authorities of the accident and renorting that neither he nor his companion was injured. A relief party was dispatched to Pigeon Bay with a change of clothing for the airmen who were wet through when the machine came down on the beach. The cause of the mishap is not known.