KILLED IN AIR CRASH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20866, 7 May 1931, Page 9

KILLED IN AIR CRASH.

COMMANDER GLEN KIDSTON. TRAGEDY IN SOUTH AFRICA. COMPANION ALSO DEAD. By Telesrnph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received May 6. 5.5 p.m.) LONDON. May 5. Despatches from Capetown sfato that Commander. Glen Kidston and Captain T. A. Gladstone were killed when an aeroplane in which they were flying from Johannesburg to Maritzburg crashed during a violent duststorm at Van Rcencn, Natal. The airmen had left Johannesburg in tho morning on a tour of the Union. A storekeeper at Nelsonkop saw the machine crash in a sudden gale. He travelled as fast as possiblo to the spot, 16 miles away, and found the two airmen dead. He picked up a visiting card which boro the name of Commander Kidston. The storekeeper went to Navreenan, a town on tho border of Natal and the Orange Free State, and reported the tragedy. Captain Kidston's machine rose to a great height to cross the Drakensburg Range. Sorno local school children saw an object, presumably a wing of the aeroplane, fall. Then the machine nose dived and crashed at a terrific speed on the side of the mountain. The bodies of the two men could not be recognised, but the clothing on ono was marked Kidston. The airman had borrowed a Puss Moth for the trip as his own LockheedVega machine was too large for tho local aerodromes. Only five weeks ago Commander Kidston flew from England to Capetown in the record time of 6A days. In Norway during the war and since then as a racing motorist and airman he had many remarkable escapes. Ho was the sole survivor of tho crash of a German air liner in Surrey >n 1929. Twice ho was torpedoed during the war. He was saved from drowning in 1927, when his racing "motor-boat broke in two when travelling at 60 miles an hour on the Solent. Commander Kidston was in an aeroplane accident in Egypt in 1928, and ho crashed into a when motoring at a speed of 95 miles an hour at Ulster in 1929. Captain Gladstone, formerly of the Royal Naval Air Service, had done much to develop flying in Central Africa. He was a single man.

Commander G. F. Glen Kidston -was a racing motorist as well as an airman. Born' in 1899, he went into the Navy as a lad and had various narrow escapes in the war. Commander Kidston inherited a very large fortune, and when the war was over took part as often as nnval duties would permit in motor-rac-ing at Brooklands and elsewhere, acquiring a reputation as one of the most skilful and daring drivers on the track. Ho also took up motor-boat racing. Once when he was piloting one of his vessels at top speed on the Solent it broke in two and he and his four companions had narrow escapes from drowning. Big game shooting and travelling in wild regions also attracted him. When in 1925 ho married a daughter of Mr. Roland Soames, they spent the honeymoon in roaming about Ceylon. lie had then intended to give up motor racing and take to flying, with which ho' had experimented. In August, 1929, however, he yielded to temptation and, entering for tho Ulster Tourist Trophy, crashed into a hedge when travelling at 95 miles an hour and had another of his narrow escapes from death. Soon afterwards Commander Kidston started on a flight to shoot big game in Kenya in the machine from which Captain Loewenstein, Belgian financier, had fallen to his death in the North Sea. He crashed in the White Nile region and the expedition ended there and then, but once again he was unharmed. In November, 1929, he started from Croydon as a passenger in a German air liner. Within 20 minutes the aeroplane had crashed and caught fire and he was the sole survivor of the eight persons on board tho machine. Though burned and otherwise injured ho hurried to a telephone and after giving particulars of the disaster drove back to Croydon to resume his journey in another machine. Early in 1930 he was engaged in an expedition to Central Africa in a light aeroplane specially equipped to enable him to photograph wild animals from the air and in July he exhibited in London some films showing very successful results. Commander Kidston on April 6 last arrived at Capetown after a flight of only six days 10 hours from Netheravon aerodrome, "near Salisbury. This broke all prior records for tho Cape flight. The airman, in an interview, said:—"lf T can carry through a sincle trip like this as a private owner without proper organisation, it must stand to reason that a commercial company, operating on the same route with* relays of machines, will be able to accomplish the journey much more quickly." Commander Kidston said he. considered Imperial Airways' schedule of 12 days for the same flight, ridiculous and urged that (he expeditious transit of mails was of the utmost Imperial importance. One object of his flight , was to show up the comparative slowness of British air mail services and to frv to convince the Post, Office and Air Ministry of the practicability of sending letters to Australia in eight days.