CROSS CHANNEL AIR DISASTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20789, 7 August 1929, Page 12

CROSS CHANNEL AIR DISASTER

LINER’S FORCED DESCENT. THE INQUEST. PILOT’S EVIDENCE. (From Our Special Reporter.). ' LONDON, June 20. Seven lives were lost in an air "disaster in the English Channel on Monday when the Imperial Airways liner City of Ottawa, which left Croydon at 10.30 a.m. on the Londou-Zurich daily service with 11 passengers, made a forced landing in the sea three miles off Dungcness. • , The aeroplane, which was carrying 13 people—ll passengers and the pilot and mechanic—was then over ■ mid-Channel. The pilot, after wirelessing the 5.0.5., of the Air Service “May- Day” (m’aidez), endeavoured to return to Lympne aerodrome: with the power still at'his disposal. Height was rapidly lost, however, and shortly before 11.30 the aeroplane was in the sea. The impact with-the water'appears to have been violent, in spite of the plucky effort of tlie pilot to avert disaster. , The pilot and" the : mechanic got clear „of the cockpit, but the passengers in the forward who would-; he thrown froth their seats, were trapped, and lost their lives; Four passengers in the tail part- of the, cabin, which remained above water, Were rescued and brought, with the dead body of a woman, to Folkestone. , The inquest on the victims was held ,in the same room in which, a few months ago, the story of how the Rye lifeboat men went to their' death was Unfolded. Major J. C. Cooper represented, the Air Ministry, Major K.' E. Beaumont appeared for Imperial" Airways, and the pilot, Captain Brailli, was represented by Mr Wingfield. Captain Brailli still bore marks of theinjury he received. -. A passenger’s story of the - disaster was. given when. Allen of Regent’s Park, whose home ' address is. in Sydney, Australia, was called to identify Mrs Emmie Ickeraon, a widow, of New South. Wales.. “ I, was with my mother and my wife in the aeroplane,” he said, “and we were about ten miles from England when we first noticed something wrong. I was sitting on the side of the plane nearest the engine which' failed. \ was three seats back. There were two passengers sitting behind me.” The coroner: What happened then?— The mechanic came in and he told us to put on our lifebelts, but we,had .no idea how to use them. We did not actually know the engine had stopped,' but we heard a click. ■ PELL IN A BUNDLE. You cannot" describe what , happened when the crash came?—lt was a ‘very considerable fall. We alb fell on top of one another in a bundle to the front of the machine. I .think if we had beep "warned we were going to crash the passengers would have had time edbuglf to get to the exits, and more people would have been saved. My mother did not know-what was going to happen, and I : think she' might have been saved.We had ho idea how to use the lifebelts, aiid we might as well ,nbt have bad them. They were useless. :■ . A i “ My wife and I came up ourselves oa£ of the plane,” added Mr Fleming, “ We were not pulled out. The pilot Was on the plane, hut I do not know where he was, as we were in the cabin. I had no idea there .was a crash coming.” The coroner:' After the crash you never remember, seeing your mother again?—No.' . , The top of the plane,.-he said, was a foot or two under the water. Captain R. P. Brailli, the pilot, then took the path. He looked pale and haggard.. He |iad cuts on* his face, and Aiis" nose was swollen^ The coroner much - flying experience, and Captain Brailli replied; “ A thousand hours.” The coroner: How long have you been ■with the Imperial' Airways Company ?- — Twelve months. Did 'you know how to fly before?— Yes v ■, ■ • ' Giving bis account of the flight, Captain Brailli said:': “I was the pilot of this machine,' which ; had two; engines. We. left Croydon and flew without any, trouble. -V We were. 2500 feet above- the land when we left the. English "coast. We had"" got-15 miles, over, the sea when I heard a clang, followed by violent vibration in one of the two engines.” .. PASSENGERS IN IGNORANCE. "• The coroner; - Was anything noticeably wrong withthe engine ?—Yes,: oil ” was pouring out. As the vibration continued I. decided to turn round and come back. Had you any idea what was wrong?— No. ' ■ ",

• You were fairly Heavily loaded?—l had II passfengers outboard and some luggage, I instructed-the mechanic to tell the passengers to put bn lifebelts immediately I decided to turn round. “I soon realised I could not make the coast, and I advised Croydon by wireless when I decided to come down as near a trawler as possible. I was'then about 2000 feet above the sea. All the time I was flying back the aeroplane was losing altitude. I was (between three arid four miles from land when I came down in the sea.” v . Do you think it would have been better if you had gone on to Dungeness instead of coming down in the sea?— No, I think it would have been worse.' Did you do anything in regard to the passengers?—No. They did not know you were coming down on the water?—No. , ' . “I: glided down,” continued the pilot, “at a minimum speed at "which I could retain efficient stability. The weight, I, had on board was 24941 b.” The coroner: You hit the water rather badly?—-It was just the ordinary “pancake ” landing., 1 * It was a landing that if you had been over land and in trouble you would have made in the ordinary way?—Yes. We crossed the bows of the trawler, and I was-thrown into the water. You say then you were thrown out because the . tail of the machine came up?—l can only say we pancaked down, and 1 was thrown out. The tdil was sticking up afterwards, and the trawler was there. ! ,

EMERGENCY EXITS SUBMERGED. •“ I got back to the machine,” said Captain Brailli. “I saw the lady and two others, including Mr Barnett, who was then trying to break the canvas on the top of the .fuselage. "They were outside the cabin on top. The coroner: What attempts were made to rescue those inside?—Attempts were made to open the door and to break in the top. - ' Why didn’t you use; those, emergency exits?—They were under water.' Did ypu see any signs of struggling? —None at all. Captain Brailli said that, the trawler rescued the four of them, and he remained on it. •. ■ The coroner ; When you decided, to come .down . like , that, how did you think you were going to get out of it with the passengers?—l was hoping the machine would ■ float. . Major, Beaumont; Did you know what' the direction of . the wind was?—Northwest. , The wind. Captain Brailli explained, was to his advantage after turning, but was negligible with regard to speed. Ha could not have, glided further; his glide ended by the trawler. Major Beaumont: It has been suggested that when landing pn land tha tail would never tip up. Is It your experience That if you laud in long grass or heavy Jand it has rather the effect of water, and the tail is liable to go up?— 'Yes. :■ ■■ ' : \

Captain Bailli stated that he- only went two or.three degrees out of his course to reach the trailer. He couji not reach land, so he reached the trawler. He got as much use as he could from the engine that had failed. He,was obtaining. some use from it. , Mr Wingfield: .There is no truth in the suggestion made by Mr Fleming with - regard' to you having flown ,into the water?—Absolutely none. ' THE VERDICT.’ James Watson, engineer superintendent at Croydon, employed by the Air Ministry, said that every part of the engine was inspected externally, between the Sunday flight and the Monday flight. He could not theorise. as to' what had happened to the machine. “ I was present when the last body was recovered from the aeroplane,”‘he said. N It\ was floating inside the cabin witV : I an inflated lifebelt” . The coroner said that the pilot hqd to make a very serious;And a very difficult decision •' he* ! 'wah responsible ■ for -. twelve other lives in the machine. ' “ 1 cannot find,” he said, “ that.be has donfe anything but what he should have done. He acted in- every sense of the word for the best in deciding to come down. Hdd:'he continued he might have' come down far from a ship, and .every- ' body might have been lost. “There is no blame to be attached to him,” said the coroner. “ There is Only one" tittle point. ' He was very concerned", with getting this machine down as well, as he'could, so he- did not think of sending a : mechanic down a second time to': tell the passengers what was happening. ‘ It might have been, better had the mechanic given the passengers. a warning. That war not done, but I do not blame i the pilot or the mechanic in any way.” He lidded that he was satisfied that the machine was airworthy when it left Croydon. . -His verdict was that'the four people were drowned through the accidental fall' of the machine • into the .Channel. ;