FATE OF AIRMEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22368, 15 September 1934, Page 14

FATE OF AIRMEN

MISSING PLANE FOUND TERRIFIC CRASH IN BUSH BODIES BADLY MANGLED (Per United Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, September 14. ‘ Mangled by the terrific force of the crash, the wreckage of the ZKABS plane, missing from the New Plymouth airport since 2 o’clock on Thursday afternoon, was found by a party of searchers at 10.30 o’clock this morning. Under the wreckage of portion of the fuselage were the bodies of the occupants, James Austin, photographer, and S. J. Green, pilot. Both were well-known New Plymouth men.

So completely wrecked was the 'plane that it is doubtful’if an aerial search would ever have located it. Fragments of, the framework, fuselage, fabric, petrol tank and engine were scattered over a radius Of 50 yards. Portion of one wing was attached to a tall sapling 70 yards from where the engine lay a few feet from the bodies of the flyers. Tattered strips of wing and body fabric hung from a huge rata against which the machine had dashed itself to pieces. The casing of the engine was shattered by the Yorce of the impact and lay 40 feet from a large tree which had had its limbs lopped from the terrific effect of the crash. It seemed probable that the plane had dived at high speed and that the -pilot had been unable to pull the nose up in time to clear the treetdps.

The bodies of Austin and Green were recognisable only' by tbeir clothing, and it is apparent that they met their death instantly. They lay under the shattered portion of the overturned fuselage. Pending an investigation by experts no theory can be advanced as to the cause of the accident. The. locality in which the plane came to the earth is heavily timbered and accessible only under expert guidance. It is broken by steep gorges and tangled with supplejack. The wreckage lies 200 yards above a small tributary of the Kauauai River on its western side at a point about three miles from the radius line. The distance from the crest of the range at that point is, roughly, 1000 feet, and ,the accident occurred at an altitude of 3000 feet.

So exact had been the information supplied by the trappers who had heard the crash on the previous afternoon, Mr, IL Burrows and his son, that three independent parties of searchers were converging to the one point when the discovery was made. Under exceedingly difficult conditions the bodies were carried out of the bush before dusk to-night. _ The distance from the scene of the crash to the nearest road is about nine miles, and tbe wild nature of the country made the task an exceedingly arduous one. Cold showers following a brilliant morning added to the unpleasantness of the work. Overnight large parties,had been carefully organised to begin a search by air and on foot. With the break of day a cold mist soon began to creep down the mountain-side, but the . aeroplanes succeeded in locating portion of the plaue in the trees and assisting the ground parties!