PILOT PENALISED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22976, 2 March 1938, Page 14

PILOT PENALISED

•RONGOTAI TRAGEDY "CULPABLE CARELESSNESS" LICENCE LOST FOR TERM MINISTER APPROVES FINDINGS [by telegraph—own correspondent] WELLINGTON, Tuesday. The licence of Mr. William Smillie, pilot in charge of the aeroplane which crashed at tho Itongotai aerodrome on December 3, when a passenger, Mr. It. L. Elliott, was killed, has been, cancelled for three months, as the result of a recommendation by the board of inquiry sot up to investigate the accident. Tho recommendation was adopted by the Minister in charge of the Air Department, the Hon. F. .Tones. The board's finding was that nonobservance of the circuit rule by Smillie was due to his culpable carelessness and neglect, and while it thought that some of his actions when in difficulty were due to comparative inexperience it held that most of his difficulties arose from his own election to disregard an order specially drawn and promulgated to ensure sale and orderly air traffic control at tho aerodrome. Generally arising out of the evidence given during the inquiry, the board recommended that the indication of the detail of tho circuit panel should bo supplemented by a Hag or other means above the ground level to facilitate ready recognition from ground level of the direction of the panel and to obviate the necessity of a close inspection. It was also recommended that every notice to airmen issued in pursuance of tho regulations should bo addressed and posted to every A pilot with a current licence endorsed for carrying passengers. "While in no way wishing to reflect on the. conduct and judgment of Mr. P. R. Hughes, ground engineer of the Middle Districts Aero Club, in authorising this flight," adds tho report, "tho board also recommends that the authority to control flights should be vested in a thoroughly experienced pilot or pilots, and that the clubs should mako such an arrangement." All the board's recommendations have been adopted by the Minister, and Smillie was ordered to pay £lO toward tho expenses of tho inquiry. Witnesses' expenses wero disallowed.