AEROPLANE WRECKED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23492, 5 May 1938, Page 12

AEROPLANE WRECKED

CRASH WHILE DROPPING FOOD THE OCCUPANTS INJURED DIFFICULTIES OF ACCESS (Per United Press Association) HASTINGS, May "4. The two occupants of the Hastings Tiger Moth aeroplane were injured to-day when the machine crashed while they were delivering food supplies to isolated farm houses in the Pakuratahi Valley, 14 miles north of Napier. The men were Mr A. W. Britton and Mr S. J. Murphy. The extent of their injuries had not been ascertained to-night, but a youth who witnessed the accident said the occupant of the rear seat in the plane had received cuts about the head, apparently from his goggles, and that the other man apparently had internal injuries. Both were unconscious when removed. The police were unable to get to the scene to-night as darkness had fallen by the time they could set out, and they found it impossible to cross the swollen Esk River. A doctor, four St. John Ambulance men, and three policemen will set out for Pakuratahi at daybreak tomorrow. The first news of the crash was received in Napier late this afternoon, when Charles Carter, aged 16, arrived from Pakuratahi for medical assistance. He travelled on horseback as far as the Esk River, which he crossed in a boat with the assistance of some County Council men. Carter was an eye-wit-ness of the crash. "The plane had flown up and down the valley close to the ground several times, dropping bread and other food to various farms," he said, "and was returning towards the sea when a gust of wind appeared to lift the nose. The plane rose, then plunged down, and just before it struck it appeared to fiatten out. The propeller and the undercarriage were smashed, and the bottom wings were broken. The men were extricated and taken to a nearby house."