TRAGIC MISTAKE MADE

Taranaki Daily News, 27 September 1933, Page 3

TRAGIC MISTAKE MADE

GIRL SHOT FROM AEROPLANE

TARGET PRACTICE FATALITY. HAIL OF BULLETS ON BOAT. Miss Jean Chesterton, a 17-year-old girl of Ilford, was killed by a machinegun bullet fired from a Royal Air Force aeroplane during target practice off Leysdown, Kent, on August 15. Accompanied by her sister, Joan, aged 18, she had gone out in a rowing-boat to retrieve a lost ball.

The tragedy had been seen by the range officer and an ambulance was hurried to the spot. The girl was taken to hospital, but the bullet had passed through her heart and lungs and she must have died almost at once. Joan Chesterton told the following story of her sister’s death: “A child’s rubber ball had got into the sea,, and was floating away from shore. Jean and I got into our little dinghy and set out to row after it. Jean was wearing a blue bathing costume and I had on a vivid green one. It was soon after nine o’clock, the weather being sunny and very clear. We were not 250 yards away from the mast which marks the beginning of the Royal Air Force firing range. A considerable distance on the other side of the mast are the nine black-and-white targets.

LIFE SAVED BY A MINUTE. “We had gone about a quarter of a mile out to sea, and I was vaguely aware that there were aeroplanes about; but we were accustomed to their presence and hardly noticed them. “I suppose my own life was saved by about one minute. Jean was rowing, but she gave up the oars to me, and we changed places. Hardly had we done so when the water round our boat was lashed by a mass of bullets. “Jean called out, ‘Oh, I am hit.’ I said, ‘You must lie down.’ She smiled and murmured, ‘I am all right.’ The next moment she sank forward, dead. L turned the boat and rowed to shore as fast as I could.” The Chesterton family own a bungalow at Leysdown. The two girls weye staying there with their mother and a, third sister, Marjorie, aged 20. Jean had recently left school and was about to begin training for a business career. Mr. William Chesterton, the father, who is a manufacturing furrier in the City, was summoned by telephone from his „ office. “This terrible affair -■ took place more than 250 yards from the beginning of the firing range, and my girls were wearing bright costumes,” he said. “Why is the Royal Air Force permitted to carry out these dangerous exercises near this group of bungalows?”

TRAGEDY SEEN FROM SHORE. The tragedy was seen from the shore by Mr. F. Banham, a holiday-maker. He said he watched the two girls row out and stop when they were exactly in line with tire row of targets. The men in the aeroplane did not seem at first to have realised what had happened. The gunner continued firing at one or two of the targets. Then, apparently noticing that something was amiss, the pilot turned and flew to the aerodrome a short distance away. “The boat was grey in colour,” added Mr. Banham, “and I should' think it would be easy to mistake it for one of the targets. Had the girls continued rowing all would have been well, for they would then have been out of the line of targets.” Later a newspaper correspondent inspected the end of the range, where the warning mast is placed. Two warning notices were placed there, the , nearest bungalow being only a few yards away. The notices were in rather a damaged condition, and parts were only decipherable with some difficulty. A senior officer of the Eastchurch Air Armaments School said: “The school is closed just now, and the range has been lent to the auxiliary squadron for practice. The range was used during the war, and has been in week-day use ever since. It is a dreadful accident, but I would emphasise this; the gunner in question has, of course, passed stringent ground tests with his Lewis gun. He had to satisfy the proper authorities that he knew how to handle the weapon. In addition to this, he has been several times flown over the targets in question for identification purposes.” VERDICT OF THE JURY. At the inquest, Aircraftsman John Boahemia stated that he had circled four times round the target, and as he came round the fifth time he got on to his firing platform and waited for the target to appear. He added: “As soon as I saw what I thought was a target. I took aim and fired. I did hot discover it was a boat , until the machine had passed at a . different angle.” The sun, he said, was shining brightly on the water at the time. The jury returned a verdict of death from misadventure. They agreed with the suggestion that there should be a line of red buoys placed, and asked that the Air Ministry should place a fast motor-boat in the area when firing is in progress.