BIG BAY TRAGEDY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20762, 24 June 1937, Page 8

BIG BAY TRAGEDY

INQUIRY IN CAMERA UNAVAILING PROTEST By Telegraph—Press Association INVERCARGILL, June 23. Tire official Inquiry into the aeroplane tragedy at Big Bay on December 31 opened this morning before a Board of Inquiry consisting of Mr H. A. Young, S.M. (chairman), Captain J. M. Buckeridge (senior assistant controller of civil aviation), and Flight Lieutenant H. B. Burrell (Royal New Zealand Air Force).

An application that the inquiry be held in private was made by Mr H. J. Macalister on behalf of the Air Department, who said it was the first inquiry to be held under the Air Navigation Regulations. The view taken by the Department was that such inquiries were of a special and highly technical nature, and in the interests of aviation and the public the evidence, or part of it, should not go into the press divorced from its context. “It is impossible for the press to report the whole of the proceedings, and the view taken is that the public should get not extracts of the evidence but the findings of the Board. lam empowered to say that the findings of the Board of Inquiry will in due course be published.” The application was opposed by Messrs R. B. Bannerman and B. W. Hewat on behalf of the pilot, A. J. Bradshaw, and by Mr G. J. Reed, on behalf of the Southland Aero Club, who asked that the inquiry be held in public. “The press can be relied on to give a fair report just as it does in otherproceedings,” said Mr Bannerman. "The effect of the inquiry can or cannot ruin the pilot. The Crown attacked him in public for overloading the machine and he was entitled to reply in public. A private inquiry was against the principles of British justice. The pilot has nothing to hide and wants the inquiry to be held in public.” Mr Reed said the Aero Club strongly objected to a private inquiry. It had an unblemished record for years past of no serious accident involving injury. This particular accident had caused great public interest and consternation as a great deal of flying was done in the direction of the area where the accident occurred. There was no legal authority for the inquiry being held in private, and it was incumbent on -e board to hear the evidence in public. The Club was cited as a party yet it had nothing to do with the matter as the machine was on hire purchase to Bradshaw at the time of the accident. After a retirement of 2 hours 15 minutes, the Board members returned and Mr Young intimated that they had decided that the inquiry should be held in private.