AMAZING ESCAPE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20538, 12 April 1930, Page 14

AMAZING ESCAPE.

AVIATOR'S MISADVENTURE.

DESCENT ON A TOWN.

ONLY A FEW SCRATCHES.

Missing the bonnet of a motor-car by a few inches, a Moth plane, piloted by William Joseph Powell, Maroubra, crashed on to the roadway at tho corner of Anzac Parade and Boyco Road, Maroubra June-, (ion, at 8 a.m. on Saturday, March 22.

Powell had an amazing escape from death, as when tho piano plunged to earth it carried with it a tangle of electric light and telephone wires. Archibald Smith, a builder, who was driving a motor-car along the street with his son, also had a remarkable escape. He brought the car to a standstill within 4ft. of the plane, just when it and a mass of wires seemed certain to plunge on top of tho car.

Powell, who had been flying since November last, had had 18 hours dual and 16 hours solo flying. Ho left Mascot soon after 7 a.m. and was flying almost over a garage at Maroubra, owned by his father, when suddenly the engine cut out Faced with tho problem of a forced landing in a fairly congested area, Powell looked for a suitable landing place. A few hundred yards away was a wide area suitable for landing, but Powell had not sufficient way on to reach it. Tho only place that presented itself was the roadway directly opposite the garage. Although the road was not very wide ho had almost manouvred tho plane down when the wheels were caught in the telegraph wires, which tilted the plane over and brought down tho wholo network of wires, entangled in tho wheels. The plane hit the concrete roadway with a terrific impact. Powell scrambled from tho wreckage, shaken but uninjured, with the exception of a few minor scratches. The machino was badly wrecked, tho engine being unseated and the propeller smashed. Wires were entangled in the machine and others were hanging down from the telephone poles.

A cablegram published last Monday stated that the Australian Minister of Defence had cancelled Powell's certificate. Flying over towns at a low altitude is expressly forbidden by the regulations.