CRASH OF AEROPLANE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 204, 29 July 1932, Page 7

CRASH OF AEROPLANE.

PROBABLY STKUCK BY LIGHTNING. LONDON, July 27. The crash of tho aeroplane by wiTicli Mr Bruce Bossom, aged 21 years, Prince Otto von Erbach-Frierstenan, and another passenger were killed occurred not far from the houses of Mr Lloyd George aud Lord Snowden. q'lie bodies were widely separated when found several hundred feet from, the wreckage, and were so mutilated that they were only identifiable by articles m tho pockets. Only a few soldiers and pedestrians witnessed the accident. An officer of the Border Regiment saw tho plane emerge from the clouds, wingless, “like a'flying bedstead.” He was horrified to see the fuselage break up and bodies fall, followed by the petrol tank. The News-Chronicle calls attention to the extraordinary similarity between the crash and the Meophan disaster on July 21, 1931, when, following an explosion in an aeroplane, fragments fell from a thick cloud. It is believed that the crash was due to lightning striking tho plane. Mrs Bossom often went for flights with her son. His ambition was to break the records to South Africa and Australia, and across the Atlantic. He narrowly escaped death in May, 1931, when he crashed in Cheshire and his machine took fire.