AEROPLANE CRASH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 255, 25 September 1933, Page 8

AEROPLANE CRASH

FATAL BLENHEIM ACCIDENT. DEATH OF PASSENGER. Per Press Association. BLENHEIM. Sept. 25. A fatal aviation crash occurred at the Blenheim aerodrome just, after midday on Sunday when the Marlborough Aero Club’s three-seater Hermes Spartan, piloted by Mr A. E. Willis, with two passengers aboard, struck the ground heavily in landing from Wellington, overturned, and bounced several times before being reduced to a mass of wreckage. Mr Willis miraculously escaped with minor facial injuries, together with cuts and abrasions on various parts of the legs and body but his passengers were more seriously injured. They were Mr E. T. Maindonald, motor proprietor, of Reefton, and Mr B. Cummings, motor driver, of Ikamatua, near Reefton. Both were rushed to hospital in the ambulance. Mr Maindonald was suffering from severe concussion and other injuries, und succumbed this morning. Mr Cummings has a broken nose, other facial injuries, and many cuts and abrasions, but his condition is not regarded as serious. He passed at good night, but, apart from his other injuries, is suffering severely from shock. Messrs Maindonald and Cummings arrived at Blenheim from the West Coast on Friday evening, and chartered a plane for a visit to Wellington. They flew to the capital on Saturday morning, and took off from Rongotai on the return journey shortly after eleven on Sunday morning. Mr Edgar Thomas Maindonald, who was aged 29, was a well-known. Reefton resident. He leaves a widow and three children, the eldest being five years old and the youngest eleven months.

Mr Willis, who is an experienced pilot holding a B license, states that when he was well across Cook Strait he noticed something wrong with the elevator controls, it being impossible to climb or put the machine into a glide. The plane was inclined to drop, but he kept her in the air until over Blenheim by “revving” the engine. He was unable to do anything except fly more or less level, which lie achieved by putting on bursts of engine every time the nose of the machine fell. In effect the machine covered some ten miles “pig-jumping” through the air, falling every time the engine was eased, and bucking up as the throttle was opened. He considers he could have kept going in this fashion till the petrol ran out, but ultimately, after vain attempts to free the controls, lie decided to effect a crash landing. When over the aerodrome he shut off the engine at a fairly low height, and attempted a pancake landing, but the machine got its nose down, struck the ground heavily at a speed of 80 miles, a.nd turned over several times. Mr Willis was partly stunned, but succeeded in dragging his two semiconscious companions from the passengers’ cockpit, and assistance was speedily at hand. Experienced pilots consider, in all the circumstances, that Mr Willis did well in obviating a greater disaster. The Hermes Spartan, Zlv-ABZ, was the property of the club, and was recently completely rebuilt at Timaru, after having crashed at Rongotai. It lias proved a very useful machine, but is now a total loss, practically nothing of any value being left. The club has been flying since 1928, and, though it has suffered a series of minor crashes, this is the first occasion on which members have been injured, except for a few minor cuts sustained by a trainee pupil on one of his first solo flights. The only other serious accident in Blenheim occurred to a visiting machine a couple of years ago. The Director of Air Services, Squadron-Leader T. M. Wilkes, and Flight-Lieut. Buckley arrived by air from Christchurch and inspected the wreckage with a. view to holding an inquiry into the crash. The inquest was opened this morning and adjourned sine die to await Mr Cummings’s evidence.

- NEW ’PLANE. MR M. H. ORAM’S PURCHASE. Mr M. H. Oram, who is at present abroad, lias recently bought a SpartanArrow aeroplane and the machine was brought to Palmerston North by Major Cowper on Saturday'. It has a 125 h.p. Gipsy 11. engine, which is a replica of the engine that Sir Charles Kingsford Smith used in the Southern Cross Junior when lie made his record-break-ing flight from England to Australia. Although originally constructed to carry one passenger, the machine has been redesigned to carry two. Painted in blue and yellow checkers, the machine presented a pretty sight when seen ill the air yesterday afternoon. The ’plane was tested by Major Cowper on Friday, at Wellington, where it had been re-assembled after a crash at Blenheim about a year ago. It was originally brought to New Zealand by Mr Frank Dysons and it was while he was flying it to Wellington that the crash occurred. The damage was extensive, but the machine has now been fully commissioned again with the renewal of damaged parts by new sections imported from England.