DIVE INTO CANAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23574, 7 February 1940, Page 10

DIVE INTO CANAL

Mil FORCE MACHINE MUD SOFTENS IMPACT PILOT ESCAPES UNINJURED AEROPLANE LATER SALVAGED [BY TELEGRAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION*] CHRISTCHURCH, Tuesday A pilot from the Royal New Zealand Air Force station at Wigram was not injured when he made a forced landing on the canal reserve, not far from the city, this afternoon; The Vickers Vild„ebeest aeroplane he was piloting struck a sod and gorse fence topped by a few strands of wire and dived nose first into a drainage canal. Comparatively little damage was done. . The pilot was Leading Aircraftsman G. M. Hunt, whose parents live at 70 Para Street, Miramar, Wellington. He was flying solo when the accident occurred and had just completed heighttest flying up to an altitude of several thousand feet.

On coming down the engine failed to pick up as it should have done, and a forced landing became inevitable. The field selected by Aircraftsman Hunt was not big enough and the aeroplane overran the boundary, striking the fence with the undercarriage and toppling over nose first into' a wide 6torm-water draiii.

There was little water in the drain, however, and the soft fall into the mud minimised the damage. The landing was made more difficult by the bumpy nature of the ground, but there seems no doubt that with a little more space in which to work the pilot would have made a successful descent. He was able to climb clear of the aeroplane uninjured. The machine, which was salvaged later in the afternoon, had one of the propeller blades broken, the wings wrenched partly from the body and the petrol tanks punctured. The leaking petrol spread about the water, and police patrols were busy for some time warning spectators not to smoke near by. A spark could easily have set the petrol alight and started a fire which could have destroyed the aeroplane. Little difficulty was experienced in freeing the machine from the mud and dragging it clear. Later it was transported to Wigraui. The engine, it was stated, was not seriously damaged.