AEROPLANE AS AMBULANCE

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1931, Page 5

AEROPLANE AS AMBULANCE

SICK CLERGYMAN’S FLIGHT. FAST JOURNEY TO HOSPITAL. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. To be treated by a specialist at the Auckland Hospital, Canon H. Packe, a Gisborne clergyman who is in ill-health, was brought to Auckland from Gisborne by aeroplane to-day. His condition made a motor journey inadvisable as it would have taken four days in easy stages, while the sea trip was impossible owing to the rough weather. By the use of an aeroplane the journey was made in comfort in three hours twenty minutes. At 8.15 this morning a Desoutter Mark 1 monoplane piloted by Flight-Lieut. W. H. Lett left Gisborne with the sick clergyman. Three hours 20 minutes later the plane made a perfect landing at the Mangere aerodrome. An ambulance was waiting at the aerodrome and Canon Packe was taken to the Auckland Hospital. Although no stretcher could be placed inside the cabin of the plane a comparatively comfortable bed was improvised. Two padded benzine tins were placed alongside the pilot so that the patient, iyho was sitting in the back of the cabin, could stretch his legs at full length. Hot water bottles and ..thick rugs kept, him warm and he looked quite comfortable when ho arrived. “It was tho most enjoyable trip,” he said. “I only wish I could have got more kick out of it.” It was the first time Canon Packe had been in an aeroplane.