ALL KILLED

Taranaki Daily News, 22 July 1935, Page 5

ALL KILLED

13 IN AIR LINER DUTCH PLANE CRASHES DEEP MOUNTAIN RAVINE STORM OVER SWISS ALPS DEATH OF BRITISH ARTIST By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 11.5 p.m. London, July 21. All thirteen occupants were killed when a Royal Dutch Air liner crashed near San Bernardino, Switzerland, during a severe storm. Two of the passengers were British and the remainder were Dutch. The British dead are Mr. Arthur Watts, a well known humorous artist, and Mr. Louis Mariano Nesbit, a mining engineer and the author of romantic books on Abyssinia, where he has travelled adventurously in districts from which white men in the past have nOt returned alive. Mr. Watts was hastening from Italy to rejoin his wife, who recently gave birth to a second son.

The liner, PH—AKG, was of the “flying hotel” type, and was travelling from Milan to Frankfurt. An airline company official states that the pilot, Mr.. Van der Veist, when crossing the frontier of Switzerland encountered fog and asked for a bearing from Milan fifteen minutes before the crash. He then wound in the aerial beca. e of the thunderstorm. When the plane came out of the clouds the pilot found himself too near the ground. He therefore attempted to climb up through the clouds, but the plane collided with a mountainside.

Villagers at San Bernardino state that the plane crashed into a pine forest that clothes a deep ravine with such violence that debris was flung high in the air. The propeller was later found embedded in a tree 50 yards away from the plane. Rescuers rushed to the spot but found that all the occupants of the plane were dead, except Mlle. Hermanides, the first of four stewardesses who were recently engaged. She was making her first jour--ney from Holland. She was hastily extracted, but she died within a few minutes.

The people of Holland are deeply shocked at the third disaster in a week after a long period almost without a tragedy, states a message from The Hague. The air company announces that the service between Amsterdam and Milan will be suspended until the cause of the disaster is established. In the meantime the service will be operated by the Deutsche Lufthansa, a German company. Mr. Arthur Watts was a prominent contributor of humorous sketches to Punch, Life and other publications of that nature. He studied art at Antwerp, Paris, and the Slade School, London. He served with distinction in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the Great War, and was decorated with the Distinguished Service Order for his part in the Zeebrugge raid. He was also present at the sinking of the Vindictive. Before the war had ended he had reached the rank of commander. shortage of pilots DUTCH SERVICE TO CEASE By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright Amsterdam, July 19. Owing to a shortage of pilots due to two recent crashes, the K.L.M. Company will shortly close down its AmsterdamLiverpool service. The centenary air race pilot Mr. K. Parmentier has picked up the passengers of the Douglas plane which crashed at Bushire. He made a record flight from Amsterdam. He hopes to reach Amsterdam to-morrow, thus covering 7000 miles in 3$ days. The Dutch mail plane crashed on Wednesday when taking off for Bagdad. It was completely burned and the mails destroyed. The seven passengers and the four members of the crew escaped with c*ly slight injuries.