PLANE TRAGEDY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22826, 10 March 1936, Page 11

PLANE TRAGEDY

CRASH IN ROUGH COUNTRY LOSS OF FIVE LIVES YOUNG WIDOWS LEFT TO MOURN (From Our Own Correspondent? SYDNEY, February 22. New South Wales’ worst aeroplane tragedy occurred near the Cordeaux dam, about 40 miles from. Sydney, on Wednesday night, the pilot and the four passengers being killed when the Sydneybuilt Gannct monoplane crashed in rugged, densely-wooded country while on a journey from Leeton, in the Murrumbidgec irrigation area, to Sydney. The first inkling of a tragedy came when the Central District Ambulance reported to the newspapers that a plane carrying an injured man which they were to meet at Mascot aerodrome had failed to arrive. Telephone calls showed that the plane had left Leeton and had passed over various towns. Then came a faint voice—that of the resident engineer at Cordeaux dam—reporting that a plane had crashed about four miles from the dam settlement, and had immediately burst into flames, which set fret" l the surrounding bush. The newsi papers immediately sent out reporters and photographers in fast cars. The indoor staffs left to deal with the news when it arrived anxiously waited for hours and not until nearly 11 o’clock did the telephone messages come from their men at Cordeaux dam. And a dramatic sb they had to tell. It was based on what eye-witnesses at the dam settlement had heard and seen. Shortly before a-quarter to 8 o’clock these people had heard a plane labouring, as if the engines were giving trouble. They had run out of doors, but in the murky, foggy night had seen nothing—had only heard the splutter of an engine, followed by an ominous silence, then a great whining noise as of a great object falling, then a crash some few miles away. And then they had seen great sheets of flame burst up, and bush and undergrowth catch alight. Someone ran to a telephone to spread the alarm. Police, doctors, ambulance men, reporters, a crowd of volunteer searchers, arrived within little more than an hour. Scach parties were organised. Guides who knew the rough country (or thought they did until they came to tackle it on this dark night of tragedy) were allotted to each party, and the searchers set off. It was then nearly 11 o’clock. The only road leading towards where the flames had been seen had to be left after a mile of difficult travel. Creeks were crossed, and the greater part of the way was through dence timber. At intervals precipitous walls of rock were climbed until all the parties reached a height of about 800 feet above the Cordeaux River. Clouds capped the ridges, and rain fell at intervals. The country was a maze of deep gullies and narrow ridges, but the search parties pushed on. They split into groups, and carried out traverses. Lanterns were frequently extinguished in falls, and several searchers suffered minor injuries. Then they realised it was hopeless to do anything more until the dawn, and so, after four hours’ tramping, they called a halt. An hour’s wait in bitter cold and a drizzle added to their depressed feelings. At dawn the searchers were split into smaller parties. They set off at 5 o’clock, and plunged into the valley of the Cordeaux River. Cliffs, swamps, and closelygrowing trees hindered everyone. Within an hour the parties were separated by several miles. The country appeared even more inhospitable by day than by night. At about 5.55 a.m. a party, 1 which included four newspaper representatives, discovered the plane. The heavy Gannet had just missed a pinnacle of sandstone surmounting a sandstone cliff. It had then struck a lofty tree 50 or 60 feet above the ground. Part of the port wings of the plane

had been severed, and parts of the fuselage had been flung about fanwise as far as 30 yards. After this impact the plane struck about* 20 trees. Some o these were only saplings, but all took their toll of the Gannet. Pieces of fuselage, wings, woodwork, _ metal tubing, and passengers’ possessions had been strewn over an area of about 200 square yards. Limbs of trees lay among the wreckage, and the jagged remnants of boughs were nearly all capped by pieces of the plane. One of the petrol tanks had burst at once, starting the fire that watchers had seen. Four of the occupants were incinerated, the fifth being thrown clear and killed. Another explosion occurred when the flames reached the second petrol tank. The heavy aluminium and other metal pairs of the engine were destroyed. The oxidised metal lay like a froth on the remnants, and some parts had disappeared. None of the valuable instruments of the plane could bo found. Ten hours had elapsed since the crash, and it had rained, but some articles were still smouldering. It will be practically impossible to determine the cause of the crash. The Gannet was known to be perfectly airworthy and the engines were stated to be functioning faultlessly. The most plausible theory is that the Gannet, which bad been sent from Sydney to relieve another plane that had been disabled, left Leeton very late in the afternoon, the pilot intending to make a night landing at Mascot; that the piano encountered heavy head winds which led the pilot to assume that ho was further on than he was; that he, believing he was nearing Sydney and, fearful of losing bis way out to sea, same down to determine his position; that, thinking lie was far past the mountainous country where the crash occurred, did not realise his danger until he_ was just above the tree-tops, indiscernible in the thick weather; and that he did not have enough power to regain quickly enough the height that would have enabled him to escape the ridge into which the plane crashed.

The pilot, Jack Small, had a splendid record of service flying, and was regarded as one of the most promising of Sydney’s younger airmen. He was always ready to oblige, and had performed hazardous flights at a moment’s notice to fulfil a duty. It was just this quail tv that led to the tragic journey. He had returned from his regular daily “ run ” between Sydney and Broken Hill only a few hours when the news was received of the disabled plane at Leeton. Small was asked if he would make the emergency flight, and he agreed with his cheery smile. The urgency for the relief plane was caused by the fact that one of the four passengers in the disabled plane, Oliver King, a young Leeton fruit farmer, had seriously* injured an eye that morning, and had been ordered to Sydney immediately for treatment by a specialist. But for the urgent necessity of an operation on King’s eye, the Gannet would have remained at Leeton overnight. The- other three victims were Sydney business men. One was Mr Frank L. Eagle, an exporter of dried fruits, who on business visits flew frequently between Sydney and Leeton. The other two were young men, [Messrs A. V. Sinfield and C. [H. Turner, employees of a leading accountancy firm (Starkey and Starkey), of which Sinfeld’s father is the principal. The most poignant feature of this tragedy is the young wives and children left by Small and Sinfield. Each had an infant daughter. Only that day the Smalls had moved into a new house, which Mrs Small said had been the realisation of her and her husband’s dreams. Now only she and two-year-old Helen Small are left within its new walls. Mrs Sinfield knew nothing of the tragedy until a relative came running, sobbing, into her home with that morning's paper giving details of the disaster. She has only an 11-months-old daughter to bring comfort in her young widowhood.