TOLL OF AIR CRASHES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19339, 1 June 1937, Page 5

TOLL OF AIR CRASHES

LABOUR MEMBER’S QUERY LONDON PRESS COMMENT LONDON, May 31. Three more deaths have occurred, raising the toll to 15, as the result of Empire Day air crashes. Two deaths are those of two passengers in a North-Eastern Airways plane, which crashed at Doncaster. The third fatality is the death of an Irish solicitor, Mr. Reginald Good, who was injured in a crash at Wicklow. A member of the House of Commons, Air. F. Montague (Lab., West Islington), a former Under-Secretary for Air, will ask the House whether displays entailing risk can 'be justified. The Daily Herald, in supporting Mr. Montague, declares that these tragedies have shocked the public. “It is clear that, partly for popular amusement and partly for the sake of Air Ministry propaganda, young flying men are ordered to risk their lives in unnecessary stunts,” states the Daily Herald.

Tho News-Chronicle deprecates alarmism. It contends' that aerobatics are a valuable part of military training.

The Daily Mail points out that the Royal Air Force sent up 1500 machines and 3000 men at the displays, among which there were five deaths. It says that such casualties, although lamentable, are almost bound to overtake an expanding air force.

ATTRACTION OF DISPLAYS LARGE CROWDS ATTEND ’DROMES THROWN OPEN RUGBY, May 20. To-day was celebrated as Empire Day, and largo crowds took the opportunity of visiting th 0,53 Royal Air Force aerodromes, which had boon thrown open to the public, and of watching tho displays of various kinds, including formation flying and aerial aerobatics. Tho Air Secretary, Viscount Swinton, himself made a tour by air of. a number of aerodromos whoro the displays wero in progress.