AIR CRASH IN TEXAS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17180, 10 February 1930, Page 9

AIR CRASH IN TEXAS

PILOT AND WIFE KILLED FORMER NEW ZEALANDEE Til AGIO (.'IKCrMXTANCKS Sonic days ago word was received in Wellington of ihe death on December 30, as the result of an aeroplane crash ill Texas, of Mr. llohcrf Jtertur Gray, formerly of Wellington, and his wife, mi American woman, and three business men. No details were then available, hut further information lias now been received by bis relatives in \Volliiigion. The late' Lieutenant. Gray, an old boy of the South Wellington School, was a lighting pilot in the (unions No. 74 British Fighting Squadron during tho war. Alter a brief stay in New Zealand after the Armistice he went to America to take up civil aviation and became assistant manager of the Texas Air Transport Co., which position he held at the time of bis death Lieutenant tliay was regarded In Hie company and the people of Amarillo, the headquarters of the company, as a. thoroughly experienced and careful pilot, and the crashing of his machine was. at the. time of the despatch of the mail for New Zealand, unexplained. The machine was a six-seater passenger one. practically new and believed to ho in perfect condition. It had gone to a golf course about seven miles from Amarillo and was apparently starting \ away on the return trip, when it fell 1 into a slow spin at an elevation of about ECOfl. Kye witnesses slated that the pilot succeeded in straightening out'., but Hying speeil was lost, and the aeroplane fell on |.o an open spare between flu" fairways of the golf course. The wings were torn aparl from the fuselage. Help was immediately forthcoming, but nothing could he done. A strange aspect of the rash was that alii gb the machine, a monoplane. had been brought out of the spin, il dropped very abruptly when again seemingly in living trim. The accident was the- more tragic as Lieutenant Gray's' mother, Mrs. Douglas Gray, of Wellington, and liis sister. Miss Phyllis Cray, were on a visa to Texas to see him and Mrs. Cray and their infant son. Mis. 11.'.-lor Gray was only 20 years of age anil bail flown mane boms w'ith her husband. The babv bad achieved distinction in Ihe I'liifcd Siates as being'the youngest and hior.t experienceil living passenger, for he had with his mother and father bad about Rfl hours' living. At the time of Hit h-ngoclv lie 'was being looked after bv Mrs. Douglas Gray, and will in all probability he hroiighi bar!, by her to New Zealand.