HOW THE 'PLANE FELL.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1920, Page 5

HOW THE 'PLANE FELL.

TUMBLES AITO THEN DIVES. FALLS WITH TERRIFIC CRASH. , RECOVERY JUST TOO LATE. The flight which ended so tragically started jutft as many a pleasant journey kad started before. Resting on the turf of the racecourse the machine buzze# in pent-up activity as if eager to speed away, and then, when the passengers made themselves comfortable, away went the aeroplane, soon to glance off the turf and speed off into |tbe air.

quered the air was now lying on the ground a mass of wreckage, and three people had been killed. Just another hundred feet higher and the pilot would have righted the machine and gained safety. The weather yesterday was fine, but a atrnng wind was blowing from t'i>; south-west. The scene of the crash adjoins the High School property, and is within a few chains of the landing ground on the course. The machine came to earth in the centre of a small paddock, bounded on two sides by a gully, and of a somewhat triangular shape. The machine was very badly damaged, and an appalling sight was presented to the many hundreds who arrived at the location after the disaster. The Avro was a machine of English manufacture, equipped with 100 h.p. engine, and had a 36ft span and was 29 feet in length.

Flying perfectly, the machine made a circuit of the course, then flying over the Boys' High School, and there turning homewards. It was in the next few -moments that the crash came. Thousands Of people from the school grounds •nd racecourse were watching the flight, and they describe how the aeroplane suddenly toppled and swiftly fell straight down. -

No doubt was left that the -plane had trashed—the easy, steady flight had in • moment changed to a sudden drop, and people sped to the scene, many out of curiosity, some hoping to help, and »any knowing too well what that sudtkn drop meant. An eye-witness who was near to the Scene of the disaster tells what happenMin all its tragic simplicity. When turning behind the school boardingSouse the aeroplane-, now only about two hundred feet off the ground, though apjsearing to be but little above the height of the boarding-house, seemed lp slow down whilst turning round for the racecourse.

Then it swayed and tumbled at an BBcanny angle. It seemingly was out pf control. It tumbled over two or fane tines, then headed for the earth, tut just then the engines re-started. ferJdeatty tie pilot in the tumbling had Jost hold of the controls. Then he declared them, but too late. The mapine fell with a resounding crash. It jw an awful sensation to behold the Jailing machine and hear the crash. ! In a moment the exhilaration of a lay's unique epott was turned to an conr of tragedy. The wonderful aerobian* whisk ft movant before had jjaj^