ONE LIFE LOST-A DOG’S

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 672, 25 May 1929, Page 9

ONE LIFE LOST-A DOG’S

IMPERIAL AIRWAYS’ FINE RECORD FIVE YEARS OF FLYING (United Service) Reed. 9.5 a.m. LONDOJ'f, Friday. The Director of Civil Aviation, Air Vice-Marshal Sir Sefton Brancker, speaking at the Croydon Airdrome, revealed that the Imperial Airways’ only passenger casualty during the past five years was a dog which was washed out of the hold of a machine when it came down in the Channel. No other passenger had even been scratched. A British Official Wireless message says preparations are now in hand at Croydon to celebrate the completion of the first decade of British airplane transport. Ten years ago, on August 25, 1919, the first airplane service was established between London and Paris. Tiny airplanes carrying only tjvo people represented the flying service' during the period of that pioneer airway. During its early days it transported only about 20 people a week between the two capitals; today the great nineton passenger planes of the Imperial Airways provide accommodation for 20 travellers each, and during a busy week it is no uncommon thing for 2,000 people to use the airway to and from Paris.