BOMBER CRASH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 169, 17 June 1940, Page 8

BOMBER CRASH

NAMES OF VICTIMS. SHOPKEEPER’S EXPERIENCE. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, June 15. The victims of the tragedy at Akaroa to-day when an Air Force bomber crashed in flames on two shops were as follow: LEADING-AIRCRAFTSMAN F. M. McFARLANE, aged 34, married, of Moana, Stoke, Nelson. LEADING-AIRCRAFTSMAN J. L. McFADYEN, aged 32, of Roa Road, via Blackball, West Coast, both of the Wigram Training Station. Valmai Dann, aged 11, and Nathalie Ramsay, aged 13, who were near the scene, suffered burns and shock. Valmai Dann was taken to hospital, but the elder girl was not so severely burnt. There were several men in the hairdresser’s shop at the time of the crash and one man was even in a chair, having a shave, b'ut all escaped injury. ~ Just before the crash the machine flew low over the golf house at Akaroa where Mrs J. Wright lives. ’PLANE SEEN TO DIVE. “When 1 saw the ’plane I. thought there was something wrong,” said Mrs Wright. “It was very low indeed and was flying in a very steep bank. Then it appeared to turn on its back and dived into the town. We thought it was making for the sea, but the ’plane missed reaching the water by about 30 yards. “We raced down to the main street and found the two shops to be an inferno of fire. The brigade was on the scene very- smartly and after a time had the blaze in the chemist’s shop under control, hut the barber’s shop continued to burn for two or three hours. When it flew low over our place the machine was making an awful roaring noise.” DEMONSTRATION FLIGHTS. Demonstration flights showing Canterbury some of the strength of the New Zealand Air Force Station at Wigram. were carried out to-day by 18 bomber ’planes. The demonstration was staged to show the people that Now Zealand is developing a powerful defensive arm. Two separate squadrons made a flight, one of nine Airspeed Oxford bombers and one of nine Fairey Gordon light bombers. Trainees were aboard the bombers so that they might receive instruction in formation flying, which plays such an important part in aerial warfare. By keeping his flight in formation a flight-leader is able to direct the maximum fire at the objective and at the same time put up a most effective defence to an enemy attack.

STARTLING EXPERIENCE. ■ “I was shaving a man at the time,” said Mr Brown, “when I heard a ’plane overhead, and it sounded very, very low. The next thing I knew it had crashed right into the shop, and the whole shot! went up in flames.

“It seemed that a wing hit the aide wall of the shop in Cross Street, and then the petrol tanks apparently hurst. The wing ca.nie through the wall and smashed everything to smithereens. There were six men in the shop, but they were all lucky, no one suffering aiiv injury apart from the fright of avijifetiine. •’ “The man in , the- chair was like the rest of us—out of .the shop in a flash, with one side of his face shaved and the other' still'FoVerod in lather. As ftf- myself, I went so fast ont of the place tliat the razor was still in ray hand when I got home. “There was no show of saving anything in the shop and there was no possibility of getting to the men in the ’plane. Ten seconds after the crash everything was a mass of flames. All we saw were two helmets in the tangled wreckage, and there was not a sign of movement in the machine.” AIR, .OFFICER’S DEATH. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH. June 15. Pilot-Officer Edgar Albert Ernest Scdgley. formerly of Christchurch, and an old boy of Christ’s College, lost his life in an aircraft accident on Thursday., Pilot-Officer Sedgley, who was 22 years of age, while at school was an outstanding swimmer and was school champion in 1935- He left to join the Air Force in Britain in May last year.