DIVE TO DISASTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

DIVE TO DISASTER

DOOMED AIR-LINER

SOLE SURVIVOR'S STORY

THREE ENGINES THAT FAILED Last moments of the doomed airliner, City of Khartoum, which dived into the sea off Alexandria, were vividly described by the pilot and sole survivor, Captain V. G. Wilson, at the inquest at Alexandria on the 12 victims. He revealed that although' the gauges showed 25 gallons of petrol, all three engines, for sortie unexplained reason, failed simultaneously.

Four men clung to the half-sub-merged wreckage in sight of the harbour lights, and, one by one, three of them swam off to death. The pilot, after swimming about for nine hours, was picked up by a destroyer. The inquest, held in the British Consulate, was presided over by Mr. C. E. Heath-cote-Smith, the British Consul-General. By his side was a scale model of the City of Khartoum. Medical evidence showed that eight of the victims of the disaster had died simultaneously from fractured skulls; three had been drowned; and the body of one, an American, Mr. Luke, had not yet been recovered.

Captain Wilson, the pilot, in evidence, declared that when the City of Khartoum's petrol tanks were filled at Mirabella, en route to Alexandria from Athens, all the instrument!i were working' properly and the behaviour of the machine was normal. Asked by the coroner if he anticipated anything abnormal was about to happen, he replied, " Not for one moment." During questioning Captain Wilson began to show signs of strain, plucking nervously at his coat sleeve, and he

was given permission to be seated. " Within one minute of sending my last wireless message at 7.18 p.m., which was the winding-in signal, all the engines failed simultaneously, when, according to the altimeter, T was 600 ft. up," he declared. " I attempted to make a forced landing. The visibility was good. I put the aircraft into the proper diving angle at 80 to 85 miles and hour, air speed, but since the airscrews were stopped it took a little longer to establish the correct gliding angle. Every detail of Alexandria harbour was clearly visible. I lost roughly a hundred feet before attaining the correct angle." Captain Wilson added that within 15 seconds he struck the water. He made a good and normal contact with the water, but almost immediately •it'terwards the nose of the flying boat was buried in water, as if it had run into a large swell. He described how he extricated himself from the cockpit. When he got to the surface he saw the machine standing on its nose almost vertically. "It took fifteen to twenty minutes to strip off my clothes," he continued, " and by this time only the starboard wing-tip and the tail structure were visible. I saw two persons, ono on the tail and one on the wig-tip Drama on Wreckage " I held on to the cockpit cushion, which soon became sodden and sank. Then I swam to the machine and climbed on the tailplane, where I found a passenger. He asked me my opinion, and I said I thouglft we should soon be picked up. As the aircraft was sinking gradually, another passenger appeared swimming. He tried to climb on to the tailplane, but he was repeatedly pulled off by the swell. Eventually I pulled him out of the water. He remained only half a minute, without saying anything, and then again entered the water, clad in trousers and shirt. I did not see him again." Captain Wilson identified the first passenger from a photograph as the American victim, Mr. C. Luke. "I remained on the tailplane and then the rudder, until both submerged," he went on. "I then swam to the starboard wing-tip, where I found Amor, the flight engineer, half dressed. We discussed the position, and then I directed him to a stake sticking up from the sea. Amor said he was a strong swimmer, and swam off. " I saw two vessels searching well to seaward of the wreck, but when Amor and I were sitting on the wing-tip no vessel came near. 1 remained on the wing-tip for an hour, till the machine finally sank, at 9.30 p.m. The harbour lights were visible all the time. Then I reached the stake after a quarter of nn hour's swim, but it was covered with barnacles and shellfish, and very difficult to hold, and so I then made for the shore." Picked up by Destroyer Captain Wilson added that he kept swimming until he was picked up at 5 a.m. bv H.M.S. Brilliant, which previously had nearly run him down. Questioned by the Coroner, Captain Wilson explained that before striking the water ho was only slightly anxious, owing to the fact that he had not normal aids like flares, buoys and landmarks. Ho flattened out tho machine at the moment of contact with the sea. It was impossible to see tho water in these circumstances, sinco tho noselight was only for picking out obstacles ahead. Landings were accomplished with the aid of flares. Ho had never before landed with only noselights. One of the petrol gauges showed 25 gallons, the other one showed nil. There was enough petrol for another 20 minutes' flying. He imagined there was 25 gallons in the tank when the aeroplane sank. Ho thought possibly a breakage in tho petrol food, or an obstruction, caused the disastor. Tho aggregate capacity of the two petrol tanks of tho liner, added Captain Wilson, was 490 gallons—enough for five and three-quarter hours' flying. He estimated that tho 325-mile journey to Alexandria was from five to five and a-quarter hours' flying. The liner consumed roughly 83 to 85 gallons an hour.