CRANWELL CRASH

Northern Advocate, 3 May 1934, Page 5

CRANWELL CRASH

* “LIKE A THUNDERCLAP” VICTIMS DEAD IN WRECKAGE. NO TIME FOR PARACHUTES. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Received 9 a.m.) LONDON, May 1. The victims of the aviation collision j at Cranwell —Flight-Lieutenant Joseph j Seymour Tanner, with Flight-Cadet John Aicken Plugge, of Taupiri, New Zealand, as passenger, and Flying-Offi-cer Dennis John Doulhwaite, with Flight-Cadet John Aakoll-Rnthcrford as passenger —were in a training flight at the time. The occupants of a lonely farmhouse and a few’• labourers saw one machine flying to the south and the other to the west. Then they heard a crash like a thunderclap. Ail the,-.victims .were'found dead in the aeroplane*?. They had not had time to use their parachutes. The labourers had to evade falling fragments of the aeroplanes, which made huge holes in the ground. It took four hours to extricate the engines from the wreckage, Flight-Cadet Plnggo, who was 19 years of age, was a son of Colonel Arthur Plnggo/ C.M.G., J.P., of Tanpi ri. He w’ent to England a few' years ago to aw’ait an opportunity of appointment to the Royal Air Force. Flight-Cadet Phigge was a pupil at King’s College for six years, being the holder of a Rawlings scholarship. Ho won several prizes in sports, in which he took a prominent part. He was a. member of the senior football team, and a promising boxer and gymnast. He w T as a boarder at St. John’s House. He left the college in 1931. ' While at King’s . he matriculated, and spent two years in the sixth form. He was a prefect. In an examination held at 'Cranwell recently by the R.A.F. he gained second place for the whole of England. He was regarded as a very promising airman. Colonel Plugge, Who before the war was a master at King’s College, Auckland, and headmaster of the Dilworth School, left with the-Alain Body of the N.Z.E.F., and served throughout- the war. As officer commanding the 3rd Auckland Regiment, ho served on Gallipoli, and later on the Western ".Front. He w’as wounded twice, and was honoured with the C.M.G. for his services. After the war Colonel Plugge took up farming at Taupiri.