AIR TRAGEDY

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1933, Page 5

AIR TRAGEDY

' TWO CADET PILOTS KILLED. MACHINES IN COLLISIONS Sydney, Feb. 9. So few people actually saw the fatal collision between two Royal Air Force planes at the training school at' Point Cook last Monday that it is difficult to secure a reliable account of what happened, states the New Zealand Herald correspondent Experts are at a loss to understand how two pilots, with the whole of the air at their disposal, should have flown so dose together that their wings touched, causing the machines to fall, locked together, a distance of 1000 feet j 1

The cadets who Jost their lives, Kenneth Aloysius Crispe, aged 24, and John Charles McDonnell, aged 19, were both senior pupils at the schooL They had completed the first part of the course, in which the instruction is conducted mainly on Moth aeroplanes. For some weeks they had been flying the larger Wapiti planes, and were both in Wapitis when the collision occurred. Both cadets went into the air for a practice flight on Monday afternoon, their machines carrying ballast instead of observers. They left the ground simultaneously, and- although a brisk southeasterly wind was blowing, flying conditions were regarded as ideal. At 2.40 o’clock the two Wapitis circled round to the north-west of the aerodrome for the purpose of landing. They approached some distance. apart, with their engines throttled down. From the aerodrome the planes were seen to converge slightly as they lost height. Each pilot was losing height before preparing to land by the usual process of making gliding turns, in the course of which the machines followed a zig-zag course as they dropped toward the aerodrome. Suddenly the two planes crashed together. The wings interlocked and held the two machines firmly together and they fell headlong slightly nose first. One machine struck the ground with its port . wings, and these apparently crumpled up into the body of the plane. The other machine fell nearly nose on and the engine was driven backwards into the front seat in which the pilot was sitting. The tanks burst at the moment of the impact and the petrol immediately eaught fire. Flames shot into the air and the staff at the aerodrome rushed to the spot vainly hoping that they would be able to save the lives of the cadets. By the time they reached the scene the wreckage was burning fiercely, and the bodies of the cadets were dragged from the cockpits with the utmost difficulty. A subsequent medical examination showed that both cadets must have been killed by the force of the Impact. It is almost certain that they were dead before the fire started. Most of the Wapitis used by the Royal Australian Air Force have metal frames, but the type used in the training school are wooden. When the fire burned out the only part intact were the engines, the frames of one pair of wings on one machine, a machine-gun and the control and bracing wires. A striking feature of the accident is the fact that although both cadets were wearing parachute equipment and had been instructed in its use, neither made any attempt to abandon the machine after the collision. The accident was the first fatal one at Point Cook Training School for nearly five years.