TRAGEDY FEARED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22348, 20 February 1936, Page 12

TRAGEDY FEARED

AEROPLANE CRASH MACHINE IN FLAMES SPOT HARD TO REACH I ________ PASSENGERS' FATE UNKNOWN By Tcleprrnph— Press Association—Copyright (Received February 20, 1.5 a.m.) SYDNEY, Feb. 19 It is feared that disaster has overtaken the Gannet aeroplane in which Captain Taylor set out to search for Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, also its pilot, Mr. J. Small, and five passengers. A Codock aeroplane which was conveying an ambulance case from Leeton to Sydney, could not proceed farther than Young owing to engine trouble, and the Gannet machine was sent to bring the patient and four others accompanying him to Sydney. The Gannet, after leaving Young tonight. had travelled to within 40 miles of Sydney, when it crashed in flames at Douglas Park, near Campbelltown. The burning aeroplane set fire to the surrounding bush. It waf impossible to get nearer than two miles from the scene by road, and a party left to fight a way through the fire to the wrecked machine. The names of the passengers at present are not available. Probably it will be some hours before it can bo ascertained definitely whether the crash was as tragic as fearod. The rescuers must force their way to the machine through trackless country. There seems to be practically no doubt that the aeroplane which crashed is the Gannet, and the nature of the crash atTords little ground for hope.