FIVE AIRMEN LOSE LIVES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 5 February 1944, Page 5

FIVE AIRMEN LOSE LIVES

CORONER’S FORMAL VERDICT Wellington, This Day. A formal verdict that five members of an aircraft which crashed into the sea of the mouth of the Rangitikei River on 24th August last lost their l»es by drowning or injuries was returned by the Wellington coroner, Mr W. G. Mellish. at an inquest yesterday. The members of the crew were: Pilot Officer Harold Hayward Beard, Flight Sergeant William Marshall, Sergeant Brian Barrv McSweenev. Sergeant John Francis Aubrey. Sergeant William James Plant. Flying Officer John Patrick McVeagh, Air Department, Wellington, said the aircraft took off on the morning of 24th August, for the purpose of carrying out exercises in conjunction with another aircraft from the same station. At 11.30 a.m. the first aircraft developed a spin and crashed into the sea at a point approximately one mile south of the Rangitikei River mouth, and three miles off shore. A court of inquiry found that the crash had been caused through the aircraft developing a spin from which it failed to recover. The deaths of all the members of the crew were officially presumed by the Air Depariment on 19th October, 1943 to have occurred on 24th August-