DIVE TO DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22260, 7 November 1935, Page 18

DIVE TO DEATH

NEW ZEALAND AIRMAN CRASH INTO THE SOLENT COLLAPSE OF MACHINE'S WINGS [from oub own correspondent] By Air Mail LONDON. Oct. 19 The young New Zealander, PilotOfficer Haldane Georgeson, Royal Air Force, who cam© from Ihvorcargill, was appointed to a short servico commission in March, 1934, and later was posted to Sealsmd. On Octobor 7 he was killed instantly when his machine, a single-seater fighter from No. 23 Squadron, Biggin Hill, Kent,, crashed into tho Solent near Calshot. Fast motor-launches immediately put out from tho Royal Air Force station, Calshot, and Gcorgeson's body was dragged from tho cockpit of the sinking machine and taken back to Calshot. saw the aeroplane loop-tho-loop and it came swooping down toward the water in a steep dive," said an official at the Calshot signal station. "Suddenly tho wings seemed to fold back and the machine struck the water with a loud crash." "Georgeson, tho pilot, was the only occupant of the machine, and the cause of tho crash «s at present unknown," an Air Ministry official told an interviewer. Evidence at Inquest

Pilot-Officer Georgeson is tho thirtysixth member of the Royal Air Force to be killed this year. The last was Pilot-Officer J. Rupert Stephenson, whose machine also crashed into tho Solent on Octobor 2, after a collision with another neroplano. Giving evidence at tho inquest at Calshot, a follow pilot suggested that Georgeson had dived over the base to say good-bye before returning to Ins station at Biggin Hill from Lce-on-Solent, where ho had been on leave. The witness), Pilot-Officer Pawson, said that he and Georgeson had been on a visit to Lee-on-Solent. There was no need for Georgeson to have dived over Calshot. It was not part of his ordinary .routine. ™ A look-out, who saw the crash, said that there was a haze, and at 2000 ft. the surface of the sea would be almost invisible. He thought that the pilot suddenly saw it and flattened out. Doing that at a great speed would impose a heavy strain on the wings, and something in the bracing must have collapsed. Full Service Honours The coroner, expressing the opinion that the accident was due to an error of judgment on the pilot's part, recorded the jury's verdict of "Death from misadventure." The funeral service was held on October 11 at the Church of St. George, Calshot. Burial followed at Fawley Churchyard. Full servico honours were accorded. The Last Post was sounded at the graveside, and the firing party fired a volley. Mr. A. Macdonald, a relative of deceased, was present. Mr. E. A. Broadbridge went from London on behalf or the High Commissioner for New Zealand, and the British Legion was also represented.