Crash in Dark

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 43, 21 February 1936, Page 7

Crash in Dark

Gannet’s Disaster Occupants All Found Dead MACHINE TAKES FIRE United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. SYDNEY, Feb. £O. Brief details of tho Gannet aeroplane disaster disclose that fomr of tho occupants were burned to death. Mr. Eagle was either thrown out or extricated himself, and his body was found a short distanco away. Apparently the aeroplane hit a tree, for parts of the machine were suspended in branches, and then fell in rough scrub country three miles from Cordeaux Dam, which is one of the city’s reservoirs. Settlers in the vicinity of the dam give a graphic description of events prior to the machine crashing. In th<darkness at about S o’clock last night an aeroplane was distinctly heard overhead. Tho engine was giving trouble and was spluttering, and the machine was losing altitude. Then came a crash and tho glare of a fire which burned for nearly two hours. The pilot, Mr. Small, had ,o.'nly returned from a flight from Broken Hill a few minutes when he undertook an emergency flight to Young to bring to Sydney Jive stranded passengers from another aeroplane which developed engine trouble. A terrible spectacle was presented to tho searchers. Two of the burnt bodies had been partly ejected from the wreckage, and the two others were in the ashes, with Mr. Eagle’s body 50 yards away, his skull and a leg having been fractured. Apparently ho died from his injuries. The ground for 00 yards around was strewn with wreckage and wearing apparel. Several trees contained pieces of wearing apparel and remnants of ties and towels. Occupants of the Machine. The occupants of the aeroplane were the pilot, Mr. Jack Small, of Mascot aerodrome, Mr. Frank Eagle, of Lane Cove suburb, Mr. Oliver King, of Leeton, an orchardist, Mr. A. E. Sinficld and Mr. Charles Turner, accountants, of York street, Sydney. Mr. Eaglo is a prominent business man. and a director of Parbury, Henty and Company, jute merchants. Messrs Sinficld and Turner had been on a business trip to Narrandera. Tho Gannet machine was built a( Mascot by Wing-Commander Wackett for Broken Hill-Sydney Airlines, and had a cruising speed of 335 miles an hour. Ruin Too Complete to Discover Cause of Crash FIFTH PASSENGER DID NOT TRAVEL Received Thursday, 9.5 p.m. SYDNEY, Feb. 20. The ruin of the Gannet plane is su complete that it seems impossible for the cause of the crash ever to bo known. From the decapitation of the trees the course of the machine could be clearly followed up to the trunk against which it crashed. Boughs were cut off for about 40 yards in a perfectly straight line. ( The port wing had been ripped off at the first point of contact and it seems the machine rolled over before it finally smashed as the starboard wing was lying on the port side when found this morning. There were to have beon five passengers in the plane in addition lo the pilot, but the passenger from l'ouug was not picked up. Another Crash in Queensland MOTH BURSTS INTO FLAMES TWO OCCUPANTS SERIOUSLY INJURED Bmited Thursday, 10.30 p.m. BRISBANE, I'eb. 20. The pilot and passenger of the Queensland Aero Club D.H. Moth were badly burned when the machine crashed at Toowoomba to-day and burst into llames. The pilot, E. Parker, and the passenjer, J. Poole, wore taken to hospital in a serious condition, but hopes are held out for their recovery. It appears the engine stalled, after which the plane went into a tail spin,