Passenger Killed in Air Crash

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7068, 30 January 1933, Page 6

Passenger Killed in Air Crash

Pilot Injured; Machine Damaged TRAGEDY NEAR OPUNAKE Per Press Association Extraordinary. NEW PLYMOUTH, Last Night. A fatal aeroplane crash occurred at Pihama, a few miles south of Opunake, at 4.20 to-day when Guy Putt, aged 18, a passenger in a Western Federated Flying Club machine piloted by Brian Davies, of Hawera, was killed instantly. According to a resident, Mr. E. S. Forsyth, who saw tho crash, tho plane stalled in a turn and with flying speed lost nosedived from an altitude of about 200 feet.

When Mr. Forsyth arrived at tho scene he found the plane vertical with its nose in the ground. Both men were thrown forward, Putt’s head striking the engine. Davies was extricated from tho back scat with great difficulty and was taken to the Hawera hospital. Prior to taking Putt aloft Davies made a perfect landing at the Hawera aerodrome at the conclusion of another passenger flight and the engine appeared to be functioning splendidly. Putt was tho second son of Mr. and Mrs. E. R. Putt, of Otakcho, and was wellknown in the district.

Davies received an endorsement permitting him to carry passengers front Squadron-Leader Wilkes when Sir Charles Ivingsford-Smith was in New Plymouth recently and has made half-a-dozen pnssenger flights.