DAKOTA WRECKED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26478, 4 June 1947, Page 5

DAKOTA WRECKED

TEST FLIGHT ON ONE ENGINE PILOTS’ MIRACULOUS ESCAPE Rec. 9.30 p.m. SYDNEY, June 3.\ A Dakota airliner on a test flight crashed into a hill on the BlacktownWindsor road near Sydney this afternoon. The pilot and the co-pilot, who were the only occupants, are reported safe, but the airliner was completely wrecked. An early report is that the aircraft was carrying out a singleengined flight and landing test at the R.A.A.F. airfield at Schofield, about three miles from the scene of the crash. This type of aircraft can normally fly in perfect safety on one of its two engines. ~ , , , An observer said that the plane had completed one circuit of the aerodrome and was making a second when it suddenly seemed to stall, lose height rapidly and crash. A cloud of smoke was seen to billow from the wreckage . The two pilots had a remarkable escape from injury as the plane struck the ground in wooded country with a resounding roar, scattering pieces over a wide area. They scrambled from the twisted fuselage a few seconds before it was engulfed in flames. Two other men reached the smoking wreckage and peered inside just as the plane took fire from end to end.