CRASH IN SWAMP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23574, 7 February 1940, Page 8

CRASH IN SWAMP

TRAINING AIRCRAFT i' ■ AUSTRALIAN PILOT KILLED j HELPERS' DIFFICULT TASK / [from OUR OWN" correspondent] SYDNEY, Jan. 31 When a Gipsy Moth training aircraft crashed in a mangrove swamp off Pelican Point, George's River, near Sydney, a pilot instructor was killed and a Royal Australian Air Force cadet seriously injured. They were PilotOfficer Instructor Archibald Frederick Brown, aged 26, and Cadet Robert Cox. Eleven days previously, Mr. Brown was married to Miss Linnea Percival, a sister of Captain E. G. Percival, famous designer of Gull aeroplanes. He 'would not go on a honeymoon because, he said, every pilot instructor was needed to train cadets for the Air Force. Spin and Crash It is believed that he intended to give Cox instruction in making forced landings on a cleared portion of Pelican Point, which is often used for the purpose. Pelican/Point is near the mouth of George's River at Botany Bay. Along the edge of the point there is a thick mangrove swamp. Several people saw the aeroplane flying over an inlet from the river, and ( three fishermen told the police that the machine was not more than 500

feet over the bay when the engine "* stopped suddenly. A few seconds later the aeroplane went into a spin and crashed nose first into the mangrove. The propeller was smashed to fragments and the nose', of the aeroplane was buried in about five feet of sea water and slush. Men Wade to Machine The three men waded to the machine and as they could see only Cox slumped unconscious in his seat, they thought that he was the only occupant. They quickly cleared the wreckage away from his legs and body and then saw that he was alive. They lifted him, unconscious, from the wreckage. Then, standing in water up to their thighs, they groped about the slime toward tlio nose of the aeroplane and

found Mr. Brown. He was buried in 4 the "slush. He was under water for some time before he was extricated. He suffered severe head and other injuries. Doctors expressed the opinion that he had been dead for some time before his body was extricated.

Cox suffered a compound fracture of one thigh and injuries to the head. He is expected to recover.