NEW ZEALAND AIRMAN KILLED.

Otago Witness, Issue 3244, 17 May 1916, Page 28

NEW ZEALAND AIRMAN KILLED.

FLYING ACCIDENT AT HENDON. MR J. R. LAIDLAVv'S SHORT CAREER, (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, March 24. The accident by which Mr John Ritchie Laidlaw, of Auckland, lost his life while flying at the Hcndon Aerodrome on March 17 cast quite a gloom over the New Zealand colony in London. Mr Laidlaw. who was only 24 years of age, came to England last October with the intention of taking up aviation, and shortly after he joined the Ruffy-Baumann School at Hendon. He had been four months qualifying for his certificate, which would have made him competent for a commission in one of the services, and it is stated that the flight on Friday morning was to have been something in the nature of a test. Ho ascended at 10 minutes to eight on a 50-h.p. Caudron biplane. Apparently he climbed too steeply, and then tried to turn before getting the machine on to the level. The result was that the machine side-slipped at a height of 250 ft, and nose-dived to the ground, young Laidlaw being killed instantaneously. THE INQUEST. Dr G. A. Cohen (coroner for Central Middlesex) held an inquest on tiie morning of the 21st at the Hendon Municipal Offices. Mr Gavin Brown, of ol Crouch Kill road, Crouch End, said ho knew tiie deceased, who was a native of Auckland. Deceased gavo up his business in New Zealand, and paid his own passage to London in order to offer his services during the war. He took up aviation with a view to obtaining a commission in the Royal Naval Air Service.

Mr Edward Baumann deposed that ho was a partner with Mr Huffy in the RiirTy-Bau-mann School of Aviation at Hendon. Deceased had been their pupil for four months. He was a satisfactory and promising pupil, and iiad been in tne air alone about a dozen times before. Witness considered that ho was quite competent to go in the air by himself. In the course of the training witness had once been up with him, iiad given him a two-hour lesson, and was pleased with his progress. Tne machine had been tested twice that morning before deceased went up. Witness did not see the accident, but he was speaking to the deceased immediately before the flight. He gave him . instructions, and told him not to turn the machine while climbing. He cautioned him specially on this point, telling him alter ascending to get tiie machine level before turning. He could not account for the accident except that deceased at that particular moment "was not himself." The Coroner: i'ou mean he lost his head! 1 Witness spoke in broken English, and ' could not explain himself very well, but he disagreed with this expression. He thought that deceased must have been taken suddenly ill. The Coroner: There is no evidence of any illness. Air Ami Baumann, cousin of the last witness, saw the accident He said deceased had ascended quickly, and was 250 ft up. Instead of putting tiie machine level, he turned it, and the machine side slipped and fell. It was even then possible to have righted the machine, but the deceased was apparently not able to do so. Witness had been up in the machine twice that morning. Mr Winchester, secretary to the RurfyBaumann iSchool of Aviation, deposed that the machine was a 50 h.p. Caudron biplane. Ho did not see the accident. The Coroner: Can you tell us why this machine could not turn whilst ascending, when other machines can do so ? Witness was understood to say that only a powerful-engined machine could do so. In climbing too quickly a machine lost its flying speed, and it was necessary to guard against turning before getting the machine level. The Coroner: Is it not likely that lie lost his head ? Witness : I do not think so. I have spoken to him frequently. He was a level-headed man, quite healthy, and, in my opinion, a very safe man. Mr Warren, a pilot at the Hendon Aerodrome, said that he agreed with the evidence given regarding the accident, which he" witnessed. Even then it was possible for deceased to have got out of it. 'Hie knowledge of the exact thing to do came instinctively to a man who had been Hying for a certain period. Deceased's four months' training was long enough to give him that knowledge of what to do at a critical moment. The Coroner, in the course of a short summing up, said that deceased died from injuries°to the head, sustained through his flying machine falling to the earth. There was not a shred of evidence that the machine was not in order, and, in his opinion, it was a case of accidental' death. The jury returned a verdict accordingly. THE FUNERAL. The funeral took plaoe this afternoon in Hendon Park Cemetery. The mourners included Mr A. J. Thorogood and Mr Gavin Brown (Messrs Laughland and Mackay), Lieutenant P., Ely (representing the High Commissioner for New Zealand), Mr H. Wilson (Auckland), Mr J. M'Leod Donald (Dunedin). Lieutenant A. E. Morran (Auckland), the Rev. E. Lees (St. Mathias Vicarage, Canning Town), some London friends of the deceased, and the directors and pupils from the Ruil'y-Baumann School of Aviation. The mourners preceded in motor carriages from Golder's Green to the cemetery, where the burial service was read by the Rev. E. Lees, who also delivered a short and appropriate address. There were a number o£ beautiful floral tributes.