FLYING ACCIDENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22741, 29 May 1937, Page 15

FLYING ACCIDENTS

INQUIRY PROCEDURE PUBLICATION OF REPORTS FINDINGS IN RECENT CASES [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON. Friday The Minister of Defence, the Hon. F. Jones, announced to-day that it was desirable that the public should know that all aircraft accidents are subject to inquiry by the Air Department. Every accident is investigated immediately by the inspector of accidents, and his report is submitted to the Minister. From this report it is decided whether a further inquiry is necessary. In future it is the intention to release the main facts of these reports for publication. The Minister added that in the case of the two recent major accidents it had been decided that a board of inquiry consisting of a chairman and two technical assessors would take evidence and submit its findings to the Minister. Reporting on the accident to the Otagb Aero Club's machine which crashed near Taieri Aerodrome on March 26, the pilot being killed, the inspector of accidents states that ho has reached the conclusion that no structural failure of the aircraft or defect in its control mechanism occurred during the flight. He considers that the cause of the accident cannot be definitely determined, but that the evidences, suggests as the most likely cause that in the course of spinning manoeuvres in which he engaged the pilot, through an error of judgment or temporary dizziness, permitted the aircraft to dive and reach a speed at which it was impossible to gain control in the height available. In the case.in which the West Coast United Aero Club's Moth aeroplane crashed into the sea near Greymouth aerodrome on April 11, the inspector has arrived at the following conclusions: (a) That the aircraft was in an airworthy condition prior to and during the flight; (b) that misuse of the rudder control during a steep turn resulted in the machine going into a dive at too low a height in which to regain control; (c) that the pilot, in executing steep turns at such a low height, was taking unnecessary risks; (d) that the accident must be attributed solely to poor technique on the part of the pilot in matters of airmanship.

The pilot who was killed at Taieri Aerodrome on March 26 was Mr. Errol Warrington Colvin, aged 22, of Dunedin, and the pilot of the machine which crashed into the sea near Greymouth was Mr. Ivan Quinney, of Greymouth. He escaped serious injury.