FIVE KILLED WHEN PLANE CRASHES

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 173, 2 July 1931, Page 5

FIVE KILLED WHEN PLANE CRASHES

DISASTER AT CANADIAN AIRPORT DOMINION DAY CELEBRATIONS MARRED ' PILOT TRIES TO MISS CROWD Press Association.— Copyright. Reed. 9.55 a.m. VANCOUVER, July 1. A MESSAGE from Hamilton, Ontario, states five persons were killed to-day (Dominion Day) in a monoplane crash at' Hamilton airport. The dead are: Harold Raine (Toronto.), general superintendent of the Canadian Press, aged 38; J. S. Maher, owner of the plane; Charles L. Daly, junr., parachute jumper (Toronto) ; Alfred Rogers (Hamilton) ; Captain Robert Sterling (Montreal), pilot.

Following a flight over the city, the pilot dipped downward but, seeing a crowd near the landing-place, tried to swerve upward and lost control as the fabric of the left wing ripped, sending the craft over on its back, crashing 150 feet.

All were dead, except Rogers, who died in the ambulance. Raiire was one of Canada’s bestknown newspapermen. He started as an office boy in the Western Associated Press, predecessor of the Canadian Press, 17 years ago, and rose quickly to the post of general-superintendent of the present organisation. Tae accident cast a gloom over what was- to have been a brilliant carnival, inaugurating a trans-Canada ilr tour. The plane was one of the largest of the fleet, and was expected to travel to the Pacific Coast and back, after a tw --day celebration here. Rf ne was attending the ceremonies as s( if-writer for the Canadian Press.