BOMBER CRASHES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24326, 17 June 1940, Page 6

BOMBER CRASHES

TRAGEDY AT AKARDA BOTH AIRMEN KILLED MACHINE BURSTS INTO FLAMES TWO SHOPS DESTROYED (Special to Daily Times) CHRISTCHURCH, June 15. Two men comprising the crew of a Royal New Zealand Air Force bomber were killed when the machine crashed into the centre of Akaroa township al 11.30 a.m. to-day and burst into flames. The victims were: Leading Aircraftsman John Lindsay McFadyen, of Blackball. West Coast. Leading Aircraftsman Francis Morris McFarlane, of Nelson, a married man. The machine fell, on two shops in Lavaud street, the main street of the township, and burst into flames. Both shops were burned, and the flames were so fierce that no one was able to approach the wreckage. Valmai Dann, aged 12, daughter of Mr George Dann. and Nathalie Ramsay, aged 14, daughter of Mr Walter Ramsay, who were near the scene of the crash, suffered from burns and shock. Valmai Dann was taken to hospital, but Nathalie Ramsay was not so severely burnt. As the machine was circling low over the township its wing was seen to drop sharply and a moment later it crashed, bursting into flames as it struck the buildings, one of which was occupied by Mr A. J. Brown, a barber, and the , other by Mr A. E. Kingston, a draper. Considerable explosions occurred, suggesting that the petrol tanks of the aeroplane were bursting, and the buildings burned fiercely. A neighbouring shop, occupied by Mr R. S. C. Stewart, a chemist, also caught fire, but the Fire Brigade saved the building. Machine Turns on Back Just before the crash, the machine, an Airspeed Oxford, flew low over the golf house at Akaroa, where Mrs J. Wright lives. “ When I saw the aeroplane I thought there was something wrong.” Mrs Wright said. “It was very low indeed, and was flying in a very steep bank. Then it appeared to turn on its back and dived down into the town. We thought it was making for the seg, but the aeroplane missed reaching the water by about 30 yards. We raced down to the main street and found two shops to be an inferno. “ The Fire Brigade was on the scene very smartly, and after a time had the blaze in the chemist’s shop under control, but the barber’s shop continued to bum for two or three hours. When it flew low over our place the machine was making an awful roaring noise. “ I was shaving a man at the time,” said Mr Brown, “ when I heard the aeroplane overhead and it sounded very low. The next thing I knew it had crashed right into the shop and the whole show went up in flames. It seemed that the wing hit the side wall of the shop, and then the petrol tanks apparently burst. The wing came through the wall and smashed everything to smithereens. Lucky Escapes “There were six men in the shop, but they were all lucky, no one suffering any injury apart from a fright of a lifetime. The man in the chair was like the rest of us—out of the shop in a flash with one side of his face shaved and the other still covered with lather As for myself, I went so fast out of the place that the razor was still in my hand when I got home. “ There was no show of saving anything in the shop and there was no possibility of petting to the men in the aeroplane. Ten seconds after the crash everything was a mass of flames. All we saw were two helmets in the tangled wreckage and there was not a sign of movement in the machine.

“In very smart time the firemen were on the job and some 40 or 50 men were handling the hoses. My place was a complete loss, but the brigade was able to get the fire in the adjoining chemist’s shop in hand.” Mrs R. S. C. Stewart was very fortunate for she was standing in the back garden of her home in Cross street holding up her six months’ old baby boy so that he could see the bomber coming over. The aeroplane crashed within 20 yards of where she and her baby were. Only the fact that the child had been crying and had been picked up by his mother saved his life, for he would normally have been in his bedroom on the second floor of the house. When the windows of the baby’s room were shattered with the force of the explosion sheets of flame scorched the child’s bedding and turned the room into a furnace. Blast of Explosion Mrs Kingston, who was in the bedroom of her home on the corner of Cross street, opposite Mr Stewart’s shop, was another who received the full force of the explosion. One of the engines of the machine fell within 10 feet of her and the blast of the explosion blew her back from the window and Heft her dazed and bruised on the floor, while the adjacent room, drenched with petrol from the burst tanks, blazed like a torch. Her husband had to wade through a creek and enter the house through the back window to rescue her. Mr and Mrs Kingston lost all their domestic belonging except a few odds and ends which Mr Kingston was able to save before the flames' drove him out. Residents of Akaroa a quarter of a mile away from the crash felt a miniature earthquake as the machine hit the ground. The street was blocked by a conglomeration of bricks, shattered metal and twisted fuselage. The bodies of the pilot and observer were pinned beneath the wreckage and when extricated later were so burnt as to be unrecognisable. Just in front of the pilot was a machine gun. bent and twisted, and at one side lay a little heap of expended .303 cartridges, which exploded during the blaze.