DIVE TO DEATH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 112, 8 April 1930, Page 7

DIVE TO DEATH.

’PLANE WRECKED .ON MUD FLAT; FATAL CRASif AT PORIRUA. WELLINGTON, A.pril 8. Descending from a short flight over the southern reaches of Porirua Harbour yesterday morning a monocoupe piloted by Mr Morris John Cameron, manager of a motor company at Lower Hutt, crashed on the tidal flat near the Titahi Bay Road. . Mr Cameron reoeived terrible injuries through being crushed by the engine, which was forced back upon him as he sat strapped in the cockpit. He was taken to the Wellington Hospital, where he died at 5.30 o’clock last evening. Over 30 people witnessed the crash from a sandy stretch from; which the ’plane took off. After circling over their heads, the 'machine stiruck the ground only about 50 yards from where they stood. It is stated that Mr Cottrell, who recently obtained his pilot’s ticket, had been flying the ’plane over the beach during the morning, and Mr Cameron, who was a pilot during the war-, had been giving him some advice on the handling of the machine. At the conclusion of their flights, Sir Cameron took the ’plane up himself, and before starting to come down he did a “corkscrew'.” He then prepared to land, and as he was coming over the soft ground round the beach, just off the main road to Titahi Bay, the engine, it is stated, either stalled or Mr Cameron cut off too soon. The ’plane was flying low, and it suddenly dived to the ground, its nose being embedded in the earth. Mr Cottrell and Hr R. Semple, junr., who were standing on the beach watching the aeroplane, rushed to Mr Cameron’s assistance, and with difficulty extricated him. He suffered a fractured skull and jaw, and his left leg was also broken. The front of the monocoupe, which was in a perpendicular position,, was badly smashed. Not long before the crash the children attending the Porirua school bad been taken down to the beach to see the aeroplane, and they had only arrived back, at school when the mishap occurred. , ■ . Mr Cameron died without regaining consciousness. . It is understood that the mishap will be the subject of an inquiry by the Air Force branch of the Defence Department.

Aviation activities have been carried on in New Zealand since 1910, when the Walsh Bros., of Auckland, made tho first flight ever undertaken in the country: The tragedy at Porirua yesterday brings the death-roll from flying crashes in the Dominion up to ten. To this total must be added tho deaths of Captain G. Hood and Lieutenant J. R. Moncrieff, the two New Zealanders who were lost while attempting to fly the Tasman Sea in 1923. The most serious flying tragedy- previously recorded in New Zealand occurred on the afternoon of November 11, 1920,. near the New Plymouth racecourse. Messrs. Walsh Bros.’ Avro aeroplane, carrying a pilot and two passengers, crashed, the ‘machine being wrecked and the three occupants killed. The .victims were Captain Richard Rus6ell, D.F.C., Croix do Guerre, pilot; Mr James Clarke, Mayor of New Plymouth; and Miss Kathleen Warnock, aged 24. On March 17, 1926, Captain F. J. Horrell, a Territorial Air Force officer, and Mr L. T. Reid, an employee of the Sockburn Aerodrome, were killed when an aeroplane crashed at Papanui. A third occupant, Lieutenant P. A. Turner, was seriously injured. The two officers were undergoing a refresher course at the Wigram aerodrome, Mr Reid being in the 'piano as a passenger. The aeroplane fell in the rose garden' of the Methodist Orphanage, striking the ground 12 yards from a room in which 60 children were having their evening meal. The immediate cause of tho crash was an unsuccessful attempt to loop the loop, a manoeuvre the pilot had accomplished successfully several times before. The machine dived at a terrifio speed, burying its nose deep in the ground: The first fatal accident in the Dominion’s aerial history occurred in Christchurch in 1919. Mr Cecil M. Hill, chief pilot and instructor to the Canterbury Aviation Company, was killed when his machine crashed owing to the collapse of a, wing. Lieutenant Grout, was killed about four years ago when his machine crashed in a field near Cheviot, North Canterbury. He was on a flight from, Blenheim to Christchurch. Although he was alive when taken from the machine he died shortly afterwards. Last December Captain D. E. Harkness and Mr Charles Goldsbro,' mechanic, lost their lives when -a Dornier-Libelle flying boat dived into the sea off Milford Beach, Auckland. The machine was recovered several hours later.