AVIATION FATALITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19390, 27 July 1926, Page 12

AVIATION FATALITY.

MEN FLYING TO WORK.

STRAIN ON THE' NEBVES. ■.< m Seven officers of the Point Cook Aviation School gave evidence at the inquiry held by the Melbourne city coroner into the cause of the deaths of Flying Officer William Arthur Holtham and Cadet Thomas Stuart Glendinning Watson, who were killed in an aeroplane crash near Werribeo on July 1. . The coroner returned a verdict of accidental death, and asked Flight-Lieutenant R. J. Brovvnhiil to bring under the notice of the aviation authorities the evidence showing that Holtham had been accustomed to travel 60 miles daily between Point Cook and his homo at Box Hi!K The strain of this, according to the evidence of Dr. Ernest*' Gascoyne Dormer, a flight-lieutenant ilhd medical officer to No. 1 station" of the Air Force, might well have contributed to the disaster. .

Dr. Dermer, in his evidence, said that death must have been instantaneous. Iti his opinion Holtham's daily journey had a most deleterious effect on his neryouß system, tha.t could have been avoided by the provision of married quarters at Point Cook- It was almost impossible for "living out" officers to keep fit, because of «fche long distances they had to travel. In Holtham's case it was sufficient to conduce to nervous instability, and might render him slightly slower in correcting errors of judgment on the part of his pupil, ' Witness stated further that of four pilots undergoing the annual medical examination, he had to send three away on account of "jumpy nerves," and two of these were "living out" men. Witness said that he had reported adversely re. garding the lack of married quarters at the school, and also on the lack of exercising facilities there. Married quarfcersj ho thought, were essential, "I- think,' said witness, "that -'the accident was caused by an error of judgment on the part of the pupil in flying too low for Holtham to correct it. It is unusual to take a sharp turn at 150 ft., and for a pupil to do it was dangerous."