AMSTERDAM AIR CRASH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23692, 27 December 1938, Page 4

AMSTERDAM AIR CRASH

AUCKLANDER'S REMARKABLE ESCAPE "A JAGGED, TEARING SOUND" FIRST TO REGAIN CON-; ;.\ • SCIOUSNESS .-. ■ ■ ■■..■* (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Nov. 21.. With, a vivid red scar shoeing on the top of his head, Dr W..-A. Fauclough, of Auckland, flew back to London from Amsterdam yesterday, to ftj surprise and infinite pleasure ofl his. friends. Dr Fairclough was one of the 12 -passengers the Dutch aeroplane flying from Berlin to London cashed outsfde Amsterdam killing six. After a. few days, m the Queen Wilhelmina Hospital, ms request. that he should be allowed to. conftnue his journey to London was granted bv the medical superintendent. a nurse accompanied him, and Croydon was reached last evening.- _ . . It will be recalled that .Dr _•* airdough, who had been in Vienna-and Cologne, was travelling by air-to London via Berlin and Amsterdam, ine afrl ner crashed in misty weather early on the evening of November 14, just a few miles outside the aerodrome at Amsterdam. The pilot a wireless message to keep on circling as the landing ground was not immediately clear. But the machine, crashed and the pilot and his assistant were ■ among the killed. _ .__ . Recalling the accident, Dr -Faircloueh said: "I really don't recollect much about the crash itself.. I remember looking out of the window-and thinking that we seemed to be flying perilously -close to the. ground at what , Hhought was a very high speed. Then t Vizard a iagged. tearing sound. 1 "The next Bthing 8 thing I remember was crawling on my hands and knees. . I. was the first person to regain, consciousness, and I saw distressing sights. I must have been about 100 yards away fromthe machine, and, thinking about it afterwards, 1 realise . that I have been unconscious for some.time., because the blood on my coat, was " It' was some time before help arrived, and I recall trying to assist a Canadian woman ■ away 'from .the wreck because I thought it might go up in flames. Afterwards, I remembered seeing a wing and-the..engines-some distance away from so really I need not have been wor* ried about this. ~ v "-, "I walked about for some time,'and I can remember seeing a woman s body taken out of a ditch and looking at the pilot's body, terribly mutilated. They to'd me I was flung clear through the top of the machine. "Then I think I must have fainted again, because I could remember no more until I woke up in hospital. The - : next day I came out in a mass at bruises from top to toe.. It was found that one of my ribs was broken. Ihey , A , took an X-ray—and gave, a lecture to students at the same time. The damage to the rib is not serious m itself, but the phrenic - nerve is injured and this interferes with the breathing of the right lung.,.. "They were very good to us in hospital, and did everything theyoould. I lost none of my possessions. Every- • thing was collected fron' the wreck and from the ground round the ma* chine. Placed on trays, the various : ; articles «'ere brought round for us to pick out our belongings. There were my fountain pen, studs, umbrella, and camera unharmed, with films which I shall have developed. I had taken, some snaps at Cologne during art exciting period. . * I shall be staying in London for a time. I had booked vo return by Imperial Airways to Australia—l camo Home that way—but until my injurjr is healed I shall not be able to.breath* properly at any altitude, so I shall have to give up that idea." It is probable that Mr Fairclough will go into a nursing home ■ for n while, for although he says he is not ill, he is still feeling weak, and unabl© to do many little things, for himself. From a professional point of view, •" Mr Fairclough considers that the finest clinics which he visited were at Vienna : and Utrecht. With the latter centro he was particularly pleased. , -..-,.