HENLOW AIR DISASTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19803, 31 May 1926, Page 10

HENLOW AIR DISASTER.

COLLISION OF TWO PLANES FIVE PERSONS KILLED. (Fbom Ocb Own Coebespondbiti.) LONDON, April 16. An accident involving the death of two officers and three men of the Royal Air Force took place at Henlow Aerodrome, in Bedfordshire, on Saturday. As the result of a collision, the causes of which are obscure, two flying machines crashed to the ground from a height of 500 ft and burst into flames. All the occupants perished. Their names are: Flying-officer William Scott Nbttingham (married) ; Flying-officer Charles Victor Lacey, Air Force Cross, Stotford, Baldock (married); Leading Aircraftsman Reginald Richard Germain, Helston, Cornwall (single); Leading Aircraftsman Basil Henry Young, Leighton Buzzard (single); Aircraftsman (first-class) James William Simmoncls, Portsmouth (single). Flying-officer Scott had just left the aerodrome in a two-seater Avro training machine, and Flying-officer Lacey and the three aircraftsmen were returning in a five-seater Vickers-Vimy- They had been testing dummy parachutes, and wete descending to pick up Leading Aircraftsman C. Dobbs, who was to make “live” drops. Flying-officer Scott had the sun in his eyes when he took off, and flew up underneath the larger machine. The pilot of the V jokers-Vimv annarentlv could. not see the Avro beneath him. The cockpit of the v ’ckers-Vimy is situated over lower wines, thus excluding from the pilot’s view anything that might be happening immediatelv below. When the machines were 300 ft up thev suddenly banked towards each other, and the Ayri-> crashed into the under-carriage of the Vickers-Timy. EYE-WITNESS’S STATEMENT. An aircraftsman who watched the accident from the aerodrome, said : “There was a Idud crash, and in three seconds both machines had struck a ploughed field 50 yards from the aerodrome, the Avro being underneath tne Vickers-Vimy. The Vickers-Vimy had between 300 and 400 gallons of petrol in the tank, and this exploded, sending up flames 50 feet high. “The terrific heat of the flames made it impossible •to get near the wreckage for an hour. There was no one within 1000 yards of the accident, but immediately the collision was heard, the crash party and the fire ambulance dashed across the aerodrome towards the ploughed field. The ambulance was hampered' owing to the rough state of the ground, and the men had to run ahead with extinguishers. “When the remains of the dead men were dragged out S’mmonds was the only one of the five recognisable. His back was broken. A body which appeared to be that of Young had a piece of steel piercing the heart.” NOT KILLED BY FIRE.

It is considered that the cause of death can be attributed in no single case to fire. If the interlocking of the machines had been more apparent than real, or if either of them had chanced to escape vital damage in mid-air, the relatively low altitude at which the accident took place may well have deprived one or both pilots of a bare possibility of recovery. These considerations scarcely arise, however, for in the event the machines fell more or less vertically from a height of about 300 feet, and none of the crew is likely to have survived the shock of such a fall. The sound made, by the machines as they struck the ground left in the minds of onlookers no doubt that all their occupants were dead before the fire started. Onlookers —either those who viewed the accident from afar or those who were on the aerodrome —have little to add to the main outlines of the accident, which in itself, though not in its consequences, was a simple one. One man who was working in the fields states that when he first saw the two machines they were flying steadily and in slightly different directions, and that they seemed to become involved with bewildering suddenness. Then, apparently locked together, they dropped like stones. Immediately afterwards a tall column of smoke arose from *he ground. And the witness believes that a man jumped or was thrown out of one of the machines, but this is contrary to the general impressioi It is suggested that the force of the collision detached fragments from the aeroplanes, and that one of these fragments might have given rise to the belief that one of the men got free from the wreckage. It is fairly well authenticated that before striking the ground the locked machines turned at least one somersault; indeed, in their fall they are described by one witness as Having been like the revolving arms of a windmill.