AIT TAXI BLOWN TO PIECES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18626, 23 July 1930, Page 9

AIT TAXI BLOWN TO PIECES.

Explosion In Mid-Air. SIX OCCUPANTS KILLED. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, July 21. A British Air Taxi from Le Touquet crashed near Gravesend. Four men and two women were killed. Smash Described. The Junker machine belonged to Colonel Henderson who was using it on behalf of the Walcot Air Lines, which operate an air taxi service from Croydon. It had, earlier in the day, crossed to Le Touquet and brought one party to Croydon, and had then set off again to fetch Lord Dufferin and friends. The crash occurred on the return journey. The flying conditions had been extremely difficult throughout the day. List of Victims. Villagers at Moepham, near Gravesend, saw the big aeroplane wobbling badly as it approached from the Channel in pouring rain. An explosion occurred, and pieces of wreckage came floating down. The .machine crashed in an orchard. The passengers were prominent members of society, and all were killed instantly. • The victims were:— The Marquis of Dufferin and Ava. Sir Edward Ward. Viscountess Edpam. Mrs Henrik Loeffler. Pilot Colonel G. Henderson. Second Pilot, C. Shearing. Lord Dufferin, one of the victims, who was 55 years of age, was a first Speaker of the Senate in Northern Ireland, having held the post since 1921. He had a distinguished army career, as had also Sir Edward Ward, who, during t: war, was Captain in the Grenadier Guards. Viscountess Ednam was a sister of the Duke of Sutherland, and wife of the heir to Earl Dudley. She and Mrs Loeffler were prominent figures in London social life. Mrs Loeffler was a well-known West End hostess. She often entertained the Prince of Wales. She was returning from a party at Le Toquet, where she entertained, among others, Colonel Piersleigh, tlie Prince of Wales’s equerry. The machine was an all-metal Junker, belonging to Colonel Henderson, of the Flying Bureau, lent to the Walcot Air Lines in order to cope with the pressure on the service. The five bodies, terribly mutilated, were found in the orchard. Colonel Henderson lay nearby, still strapped in the pilot’s seat, but expired as the rescuers arrived. Blown to Pieces. The main part of the fuselage, with one attached, fell into the garden of a bungalow. The engine crashed on the drive of an adjoining house. A wing fluttered down two miles away. Other parts were widely scattered. The petrol tanks were picked up intact, which, with the absence of signs of fire, makes it difficult to account for the reports that an explosion occurred. The orchard presented a ghastly spectacle—parts of bodies were strewn in all directions, rendering identification most difficult. Failure of Popular Service. Lord Londonderry and the Duke of Sutherland, a brother of Lady Ednam visited the simple hut serving as a mortuary near Gravesend, and entered simultaneously with the fathers of the two pilots. Police and others continued long after nightfall searching the district with lanterns for any fragment of debris likely to afford a clue to the cause of the crash. The Prince of Wales had frequently flown for week-ends to Le Touquet, where he was the guest of Mrs Loeffler Colonel Piersligh would have travelled in the ’plane, if there had been room. He crossed the Channel by steamer.