AIRMEN'S FATE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23057, 7 June 1938, Page 8

AIRMEN'S FATE

.AUSTRALIAN CMS®? _____ ; - Vy'> THREE DEATHB RESULTt WIDESPREAD WRECKAGE, • [ FROM OUB OWN CORRESPONDENT] BYDXBY, Jnn« 8 'Two members of the Citizens' fa Force, the voluntary militia unit of tie Royal! Australian Air Force, "we t £ killed, one was fatally injured, and twe others critically injured when an Arfa. Anson bombing aeroplane crashed :; a t Green Hills, about 25 miles froij Sydney. The machine hit the ground with ,6uch force that it was shattered, the fragments being scattered over, area of about five acres. Four of the occupants were hurled from the machine as it struck, one man being thrown 70 yards The killed were:—Flight-Lieutenant &1. P- Allsopp, 37, sales manager for New South Wales of the Vacuum Oi) Company, Pty., and Corporal W. A. Lockwood, 22. Raymond C. Lawson, 33, a wireless operator, died from his injuries two days later. The others injured were John Angus Gordon, 37, and James A. Mackey, 27. Allsopp! who was the pilot, was killed instantly! Lockwood ■ died i3oon after he was ad<mitted to Liverpool District Hospital Terrific Impact with Ground The machine was travelling at 160 miles an hour when it struck the ground. It ploughed a furrow 97 yards long before the undercarriage and onwing were wrenched off. The machine then apparently turned a somersault, throwing out all of the occupants except the pilot. The machine was one of the new bombers recently added to the Royal Australian Air Force. It wai manned entirely by a civilian crew, *ll of them members of tha 22nd City of Sydney squadron. Pilot-Officer Scott, who was on observation duty on a hill a mile away, witnessed the accident. > He was attended by three aircraftsmen who were standing by a motor tender. Thej saw the . aeroplane disappear over a range and then heard a series -of terrific crashes. Scott, who saw the machine hit the ground, shouted to the men, who drove to a large open space, where they found the widely-scattered wreckage of the aeroplane. From where it first touched the ground to where the scattered and twisted • fuselage lay was lid yards. Allsopp's Distinguished Career An examination of the ground wherr the machine crashed showed that metalwork anil debris had been scattered over an extraordinarily wide area. The furrow in the ground wheri the undercarriage had been dragged along was in places nearly a foot aeep. ..Allsopp had a distinguished career in army, Royal Australian Air Force, civil aviation, and' commercial life. He was a close personal friend of v the. late Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, the late Flight-Lieutenant C. T. P. Ulm, and Captain P. G. Taylor. He Was originally an officer of artillery, and,- when transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force, rose to the . rank of flyingofficer. He' resigned from the 'Royal Australian Air Force to join, the staff of the Vacuum Oil Company as a special salesman, and was; later appointed aviation officer for company in New South Wales. While in that capacity, he flew several hundreds of hours in a Moth aircraft, including what was considered to be; the < first commercial flight around Australia. He had charge of all fuellinjg arrangements for the flight of the Southern'; Gross; to New Zealand in 1933.