AEROPLANE CRASH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19249, 13 August 1924, Page 10

AEROPLANE CRASH.

A REMOTE AUSTRALIA. PASTORA.LIST KILLED. (From Doe Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 31. Details have been received from Port Hedland, in the north of Western Australia, of the aeroplane crash last-week which resulted in the death of Mr Keith Mackay, a well-known paetoralist and owner of the great Mundabullangana Station. Although tho West Australian Airways, Ltd. has been running mails to the far north of that State for two years, this is the first occasion on which one of its machines,has crashed. With remarkable regularity the machines have plied over their vast routes, and so popular has this mode of transit become that there is seldom a vacant passenger seat for the long air journey between Perth and tho far north. Besides this regular run the company undertakes private engagements, and it was on one of these that tho Bristol biplane carrying Mr Mackay and Pilot L. E. Taplin, and mechanic George Wilson, crashed into Port Hedland Creek. The machine was engaged privately by the deceased to convey him to a station which he owned in the far northwest. While passing Port Hedland Creek, about four and a-half miles from the aerodrome, the machine nose-dived and crashed into the shallow water. The deceased was pinned under water beneath the wreckage, and it was about 20 minutes before his body was recovered and it was found that ho had been drowned. The other occupant, had remarkable escapes from serious ininry. Mechanics were sent to the scene of the accident to attend to the smashed aeroplane, but it is not known at present to what extent the machine is damaged. In all proha,biliy the machine will lia-’C to be completely dismantled and reassembled. Pilot Tapiiu served with the Australia Flying Service dirfing the war. He saw service in Egypt and France, and was transferred as a mechanic to the Australian Flving Corps, and quickly qualified as a pilot,. From Palestine ho went to France and was shot down and wounded in 1918 and taken prisoner. He was subsequently a prisoner war war in Southern Bavaria. The la.+e Mr Mnckav was keenly interested in aviation, and had been negotiating for the purchase of an aeroplane for his pe-sonal use. It is stated that be piloted a ’plajie over Perth on more than one occasion.