AIR MANOEUVRES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23429, 19 August 1939, Page 15

AIR MANOEUVRES

GERMANS " 'GATE-CRASH:" FLY IN FORBIDDEN AREA ORDERED OFF BY RADIO LONDON, Aufr. 13 A German aeroplane "gate-crashed" Britain's air manoeuvres yesterday. The aeroplane was the Lufthansa Line's latest 40-seater, which has a detachable nose and tail quickly replaceable with gun turrets. It flew over an area at the mouth of the Thames, which the Air Ministry prohibited to commercial aircraft during the manoeuvres and crossed a -Royal Air Force air-field at Manston, near Eamsgate, at a height of a few hundred feet. It then passed over Richborough, Kent, the "hush-hush" port during the Great War. The machine was ordered back on to its proper course by radio, and later landed at Croydon. , Air Ministry officials immediately summoned the pilot before them. The air-liner operates on the Berlin-Amster-datn-Lympne-Croydon service, and it is usual for these liners to cross the coaSt over the Thames estuary at Clacton or Margate. . The London manager of the Lufthansa Lino (Herr Starke) said in an interview:— "The incident was unfortunate, but unintentional. The pilot says that he did not know of the instructions about the mouth of the river. We are always changing crews on this route."