AIRMAN KILLED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22810, 20 February 1936, Page 9

AIRMAN KILLED

SQUADRON-LEADER M'GREGOR CRASH AT RONGOTAI MACHINE STRIKES ANEMOMETERMAST PASSENGER SLIGHTLY INJURED (Pek United Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 19. Striking, the anemometer mast when gliding down to land at the Rongotai Aerodrome this afternoon, the Union Airways Miles Falcon private charter taxi monoplane crashed to the ground upside down and the pilot. Squadronleader M. C. M'Gregor, received injuries from which he died in the Wellington Hospital about two hours later. His passenger, Mr C. W. F. Hamilton, a young sheep farmer of Irishman Creek Station, Fairlie, South Canterbury, escaped with minor injuries which consisted of slight abrasions to the right wrist and face, and a, cut above his right eye. , Mr Hamilton arrived from the South Island by the inter-island express steamer yesterday morning on a hurried visit to Hamilton, and .for this purpose he. engaged a Miles Falcon monoplane piloted by A. V. Jury. He flew the same day from Rongotai to Hamilton, where he stayed last night. He left Hamilton with Mr Jury on the southward journey about noon to-day, but at Palmerston North Squadron-leader M'Gregor relieved Mr Jury as pilot for the remaining stage of the journey to Wellington. Palmerston North was left shortly after 2 o’clock, and, making the last stage of the trip via the coast-line, Squadron-leader M'Gregor was about to bring the monoplane down'to land when its right wing caught the anemometer mast.

‘‘ Heavy rain was falling at the time of the - accident The crash was heard by , officials at the aerodrome, and within a few seconds they were on the spot and had extricated Squadron-leader M'Gregor and Mr Hamilton from underneath the upturned monoplane, which had crashed several yards from the anemometer mast. This mast stands near the main roadway on the Seatoun side of the. .aerodrome buildings. Squadron-leader M‘Gregor received -extensive head injuries and a fracture of the base of the skull. After receiving medical'' attention at the aerodrome Mr Hamilton said that the weather had been pretty thick from Palmerston North to Wellington, rain falling all the way down. The pilot had done one circle round the aerodrome and was about to land when the machine hit the anemometer mast. Which wing, or which part of tire monoplane, had hit the mast he could not isay.' “I did not see it comin",” he said. “ There was a crash and I simply knew , we had hit something. The machine fell upside down and about a quarter or half a minute later someone lifted the wing and pulled me out.” 'Although the machine is badly smashed it is not! considered- to be beyond the reconditioning stage. The engine was torn away from its bearings, the metal propeller smashed and the machine generally badly damaged around the nose, which seems to indicate that the machine nose-dived after striking the mast and then somevsaulted over on its back. One wing is ripped off, but the fuselage is in fairly good order and the elevator and wheels arc intact.

DISTINGUISHED CAREER NOTABLE WAR SERVICE (Per United Press Association! PALMERSTON N., February 19. Born at Hunterville 40 years ago, Squadron-leader M'Gregor, M.C., D.F.C., and bar, learned to fly at Wash Bros, school at Kohimarama and left for England in 1910 to join the Royal Air Force, and later became a major in ■Bishop’s famous 85th Squadron. While at the front he won the M.C., D.F.C. and bar, and scored a considerable number of victories over German machines. Returning to the Dominion he took up fanning, but when a Gipsy Moth maphine was produced in 1928 he returned to aviation and spent the next two years passenger flying in every corner of New Zealand, becoming one of the most, popular figures in the Dominion. Later he conducted a passenger service between Christchurch and Dunedin. He was selected by the Government to carry out experimental mail flights in ,1931 from Auckland to Invercargill, Wellington to Hokitika, and Hawke’s Bay to Wellington. He was also associated with the late Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. He joined the Manawatu Aero Club in 1932 as pilot-instructor, but at the Aero Club pageant had the misfortune to crash while giving a balloon bursting exhibition and for a lengthy period was in hospital. On his recovery he resumed duty as a pilot-instructor, and later was selected with H. C. Walker, club captain, to pilot a Miles Hawke machine in the Melbourne Centenary Air Race, from London to Melbourne, in which they established a light plane record for the world and secured fifth place. Squadron-leader M'Gregor relinquished his position as instructor on his appointment to the staff of the Union Airways as service manager. Of a quiet disposition, Squadron-leader M'Gregor had been the idol of the public throughout the Dominion. He leaves a wife and four children —two girls and two boys.