VICTIMS OF CRASH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 121, 21 April 1938, Page 16

VICTIMS OF CRASH

LARGELY ATTENDED FUNERAL. Per Press Association. HASTINGS, April 20. There was a very large attendance at the funeral of Miss Nellie Arnott and Mr It. B. Arnott, victims of the air crash at Matapiro, which took place to-day. There were approximately '7O motor-cars in the cortege. Before the departure of the cortege from Hastings for the Eskdale cemetery, a short service was conducted by Rev. D. J. A. Shaw. The service at the graveside was taken by Rev. Stuart Francis, of Napier. An aeroplane belonging to the Hawke’s Bay and East Coast Aero Club followed the procession from Hastings to the Eskdale Cemetery and circled over the cemetery. PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION. HASTINGS, April 20. The preliminary investigation into the air crash at Matapiro was completed yesterday afternoon by Mr R. C. Keen, Inspector of the Air Department, of Wellington. He returned to Wellington last evening and will make liis report to Hon. E. Jones (Minister of Aviation), who will fix the date of the departmental inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the accident. The accounts of eye-witnesses appear to substantiate the assumption that the crash was due to the crumpling of the right wing of the ’plane, and if this is” definitely proved to be the case, as appears likely, then it will be the first air crash of its kind in this Dominion. Experts in aviation are satisfied that the machine nose-dived headlong to earth, for the engine was buried several feet into the ground, portions of the propeller blades being found nearly 4ft. beneath the surface. Practically all the wreckage is in the one spot, and that above the engine. Certainly fragments were found some distance away from the point of impact, but these were hurled there as the result of the impact.