CRASH ON NORMANDIE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3792, 7 August 1936, Page 5

CRASH ON NORMANDIE

WING CAUGHT ON DERRICK. FUNNEL DRAUGHT THEORY. London, June 24. One of the most extraordinary accidents that has ever happened at sea thrilled and startled passengers on board the French 80,000-ton liner Normandie on Monday. An R.A.F. Blackburn Baffin bomber seaplane crashed on the deck of the ship. The pliot, Lieutenant G. K. Horsey, R.N., climbed out of the cockpit without having suffered a scratch, and apologised to the captain, Commander Reno Pugnet. The Normandie had dropped anchor a mile off Ryde, and was about to disembark by tender 563 of her passengers from New York. Suddenly the machine was seen flying level with the ship, and only a few feet from her side. It is suggested .that hot air rising from the funnels of the ship may have caused the accident. Neither the pilot, who is under instruction at Gosport, nor anyone on the deck of the liner was hurt. The following statement on behalf of the captain, was transmitted by wireless telephone from the liner;— “No one was more surprised than we were when the bomber was seen to crash. There was a stampede for safety by those in the danger zone. It seemed to us that the plane came so close to the ship as to be affected by the draught from her funnel. The pilot tried hard to make a turn and get away again, but there was no time and the machine sat right flat on the deck and stuck fast. “We had no time to free the plane and land her at Southampton, so we are taking her as a passenger to Le Havre.” Car Falls on Rail. Several seaplanes were flying near the liner, which had just arrived from. New York. The one which crashed swooped down, and its wing struck a derrick which was lifting a motor car alongside. The plane swung round and fell on the forecastle of the ship. It was apparently not seriously damaged. The car, which belonged to Captain Arthur Evans, M.P. for Cardiff South, fell with a crash to the deck rail of the liner, where it remained hanging half over the side. As a result only five out of a total of 11 cars could be landed. Lieutenant Horsey was taken to Gosport in an R.A.F. tender which was sent for him. Few of the first class passengers in the ship saw the crash. Members of the crew, however, had to run for their lives. The Normandie was practically undamaged. Only the arm of the derrick was broken and the railings, where the plane crashed, damaged. She sailed with the plane still on the deck for Le Havre. It will be removed when the liner calls at Southampton on her next trip to New York.