AIRMEN'S DEATHS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22620, 7 January 1937, Page 10

AIRMEN'S DEATHS

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST NO DIRECTION REPORTS BOMBERS LOST IN FOG By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received January (i, f>.55 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. r, Amazing evidence was given at the inquest into the deaths of three Royal Air Force officers ori December 12, when six out of seven bombers lost their way in fog. Witnesses stated that no stations of the Royal Air Force were equipped with instruments for blind landing and on the fatal day the wireless station at Finningley was under going repairs. As a result the pilots could not obtain weather and direction reports when lost in the fog. Tho jury returned a verdict of accidental deaths owing to abnormal weather conditions. Fog caused a disaster on December 12, when seven Hey ford bombers forming the No. 102 Bombing Squadron were flying from Aldergrove to Finningley, Yorkshire, which only one machine reached. Of the remainder one crashed with the loss of three lives on a riflerange at Hebhenbridge, Yorkshire. Two of the other aeroplanes made forced landings in Cheshire, the occupants having narrow escapes from injury, and a fifth bomber also lost its direction. Engine trouble developed and the crew landed in parachutes. The remaining two aeroplanes made forced landings in other districts.