AIR DISASTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22167, 22 July 1935, Page 9

AIR DISASTER

DUTCH MACHINE

THIRD WITHIN WEEK

THIRTEEN LIVES LOST

MOUNTAIN SIDE HIT

TWO BPJTISH VICTIMS

By Telfsrsirh—Prpss Asuorifttirin—Copyright CRpreired July 21, 5.5 p.m.) MTLAN. July 20 The third machine of the "Royal Dutch Air Line to meet with disaster within a week is the Ph—A.K.G., of the " flying hotel " type.

The air liner was en route from

Milari to Frankfurt , when it crashed near San Bernadino, Switzerland. durine a severe storm. The 13 occupant!! were killed. Nine were passengers, who included two Brito-ns. The others were Dutch. The cause of the disaster is not known.

A telecrram from Berne savs the two British passencers who wpre killed were Commander Arthur Watts and Mr. Louis Mariano Xesbit. mining engineer and author of romantic bor.ks on Abyssinia, where he had manv adventures when travelling in districts from which white men formerly had not returned alive.

Commander Watts was hasteninc from Italy to rejoin his wife, who recently care birth to a son.

An official of the Air Line Company states that the pilot, Vanderveist. when crossing the frontier of Switzerland encountered a fos arid asked for his bearings from Milan 15 minutes before the crash. Then he wound in the aerial owing to a thunderstorm. The pilot flew the machine out of the clouds and found it was too near the ground. Therefore he attempted to climb up through the clouds, but collided with the side of a mountain. Villagers at San Bernardino state that the aeroplane crashed into a pine forest which clothes a deep ravine. The impact was of such violence that debris was flung upwards. Later the propeller was found embedded in a tree 50 yards distant. Rescuers rushed tc the spot. They found all the occupa.nts of the liner dead but Mademoiselle Hennanides, the first of four stewardesses recently engaged, who was making her first trip from Holland. She was hastily extricated but died a ;few minutes later.

A message from the Hague says the public are deeply shocked at this third disaster in a week after n long period almost free from tragedy. The Boyal Dutch Air Line announces the suspension of the Milan service until the cause of the disaster has been established. It will be operated by the Lufthansa Company.

Seven British passengers were on board the Royal Dutch air liner (K.L.M.) which crashed at the Amsterdam aerodrome on July 14. Tiro passengers and four members, of the crew were killed, and 13 passengers, including two women, and one member of the ei>ew, were saved. The machine, a four-engined Fokker, one of the biggest psissenger aeroplanes in the world, took off for Malmo, fjweden, but develojwd engine trouble and returned. It crashed and caught fire, the six victims being trapped and burned to death. The door of the Cabin burst open at the moment of the crash. The door of the crew's cockpit jammed. Both the dead passengers were British. Their names were Hobson and Newman. The second disaster occurred on July 17 to a Dutch mail aeroplane which crashed at Bushire nrhen taking-off for Bagdad and was completely burnt and the mails destroyed. Seven passengers and four of the crew escaped with only slight injuries. The passengers included two Britons, two vromein and a six-xnonths-old baby. • Commander Arthur Watts, killed in the latest disaster, served with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the Great War. He took part in the Zeebrugge raid on April 23, 1918, and won the D.S.O. He also took part in the sinking of the Vindictive iir Ostend Harbour, on May H), 1&18. Since the war he had been a contributor of humorous drawings to Punch, Life and other publications. He was the author of " A Painter's Anthology."

BUSHIRE CRASH STRANDED PASSENGERS PARMENTIER TO THE RESCUE AMSTERDAM. July 19 A message from Bagdad states that Mr. K. D. Parmentieir, the noted Dutch pilot, who left Amsterdam in a Douglas aeroplane to pick up th? passengers of the crashed K.L.M. air liner, reached there after a record flight. He hopes to arrive batfk in Amsterdam to-mor-row, when he will have covered 7000 miles in 3\ days. | Owing to the shortage of pilots, due to the two recent crashes, the K.L.M. shortly will close down the Amster-dam-Liverpool service.