TRAGIC CRASH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22119, 27 May 1935, Page 10

TRAGIC CRASH

MAKKIED COUPLE DEAD

ACCIDENT NEAR MELBOURNE WIFE AT THE CONTROLS 'MACHINE'S FATAL SPIN By Tolegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received May 2G, G. 35 p.m.) MELBOURNE. May 26 A double flying tragedy occurred to-day at the Essendon aerodrome, near Melbourne. The victims were Mr. G. P. Fairbairn, a member of a well-known Victorian pastoralist family, and his wife. An aeroplane in which Mr. and Mrs. Fairbairn had proposed to fly to f their home crashed after taking off. Mrs. Fairbairn was at the controls at the time. Immediately the machine left the ground the motor cut out and the aeroplane went into a spin and crashed on to a road, narrowly missing a motortruck.

Mr. Fairbairn learned to fly in England in 1930 and in the following year he flew to Australia with a companion.

Mr. G. P. (Pat) Fairbairn, who was 26 years of age, was the youngest son of the late Mr. Charles Fairbairn, of Victoria. He was a pupil at the Geelong Grammar School, and subsequently a student at Jesus College, Cambridge. In 1931, while a member of the Cambridge University Air Squadron, Mr. Fairbairn, with Mr. K. Shensitone, also a member, made a leisurely flight from England to Australia. They left on February 19 and reached Darwin on April 18. Some excitement was caused a few days later by the disappearance of Mr. Fairbairn. About four o'clock one day, without mentioning the matter to Mr. Shenstone, or anyone else, he took off in the aeroplane in which they had flown to Australia, for Casuarina Beach. When he had not returned by 6 p.m., Pilot Tapp, in a Qantas machine, started out to look for him. He found Mr. Fairbairn with his aeroplane sunk in < soft sand, surrounded by water, at a place on the beach eight miles from Darwin.

It was after midnight before the search party and Mr. Fairbairn got home. In reply to questions, he merely explained that engine trouble had forced him to land on the beach.