CRASH IN THE AIR

Taranaki Daily News, 6 February 1931, Page 14

CRASH IN THE AIR

BIG SWAN AND MOTH PLANE.

UNPRECEDENTED INCIDENT.

Sydney, Jan. 30.

One of those unusual air incidents, almost unprecedented in Australia, in which an airman collided with a big bird in the air, occurred this week close to the Mascot aerodrome.

Pilot Arthur Bostock, flying a Moth plane, was returning to Mascot high over the Bunnerong sandhills. Observers noticed what Bostock failed' to see—• a huge black swan flying iat the same altitude on a diagonal course. With long neck outstretched the swan ■was travelling apparently at the same speed as the plane, and the observers calculated that if the swan did not dievrge the two would meet at a spot over the sandhills. The little drama took only a matter of seconds to reach its climax. It seemed that the big black swan saw the plane but refused to alter its course. Observers say they distinctly heard the bird’s “honk-honk” as it appeared to increase speed and rush headlong; to the meeting. The watchers could almost hear the crash as the swan hit a wing of the plane, hung for a second in the air, and then side-slopped and rolled at an amazing pace towards the earth about 2000 feet below.

As though recovering suddenly the swan spread his wings and steadied the fall for a second, then rolled over again and plumped straight into a Chinese market gardener’s pond. The watchers ran over to the pond expecting to find the bird floating, dead. Instead, he was floating round preening his feathers, startled, but not convinced. He is still there, perhaps recovering his strength so that he may try conclusions again with this strange, fearsome air enemy.' ’