MOTH PLANE TRAGEDY

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3833, 12 February 1929, Page 2

MOTH PLANE TRAGEDY

TWO YOUNG MEN KILLED

Alter spinning several times in the air from a height of 300 ft, a Moth aeroplane nose-dived, crashed to the ground, and burst into flames at Essendon, Melbourne, on Boxing Day. The pilot and a passenger, who were apparently killed instantly, were burned almost beyond recognition. Their names were: Brian Rhodes, aged twenty-one, motor salesman, and Alfred Heaton, aged eighteen, mechanic. Rhodes left the Essendon aerodrome shortly after 5 o'clock in the afternoon in a Do llaviland Moth aeroplane. Heaton, who was a frequent visitor to the aerodrome, had persuaded Rhodes to take him for a ilight. According to the stories of several eye-witnesses the aeroplane had been-in the air for only a few minutes, when it swerved suddenly and descended in a series of spirals over an open paddock near the aerodrome.

Suddenly the machine nose-dived and crashed to the ground. For some seconds it was completely obscured by dense smoke, and then tierce Humes burst from it. Several people rushed to the paddock, but by the time they had arrived—about ten minutes after the accident—the aeroplane had been practically destroyed and the pilot and the passenger were dead. Mr William Williams, of Ascot Vale, who saw the accident, said that there was a more than usually heavy discharge from the exhaust pipe at the beginning of the spin, lie saw a spurt of flame from some part of the engine just before the plane dived to the ground. Brian Rhodes was the only sou of Mr J. S. Rhodes, managing director of Rhodes Motor Co. Pty., Ltd. Alter leaving school ho wont to the United States for business experience. He was an enthusiastic; member of the Australian Aero Club, Victorian section. He held a pilot's license. Heaton was a mechanic employed by the Slate Electricity Commission. He was advised two days before his death that ho had been accepted as a candidate tor admittance to tho Royal Australian Air Force.