Two Persons Killed

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22934, 3 July 1944, Page 4

Two Persons Killed

Plane Crashes On West Coast Four Passengers And Pilot Injured (N.Z.P.A.) NELSON, July 1. AN Air Travel, Limited, passenger plane which lelt Nelson yesterday at 1 p.m. on its normal service to the, West Coast crashed on the bush slopes of Mount Hope, near Kawatiri. The plane carried six passengers. One passenger, Mr M. Dawe, was killed outright, ami another, Captain J. C. Mercer, died from injuries. The victims were:— Killed Mr Maurice Dawe, Hokitika, secretary of Air 1 ravel, Ltd. Captain J. C. Mercer, Hokitika, managing director of Air Travel, Ltd. Injured Mrs E. Russell, Westport, both legs broken; condition serious. Miss A. Patterson, matron of the Buller Public Hospital, Westport, broken leg. Flight Lieutenant P. C. Lewis, the pilot, head, chest and leg injuries and shock. Mr B. R. Perry, sales manager, Macduff's, Ltd., Wellington, shock and fractured rib. Mr G. M. Strathmore, general manager, Macduff’s, Ltd., Wellington, fractured skull.

News of the crash was brought by Mr Perry, who, with Flight Lieutenant Lewis, struggled without lights through the bush and down the creek to the road. Flight Lieutenant Lewis collapsed 50 yards from the road, and his companion came out into the open at 10.15 p.m. and was picked up by Mr Arthur Hughes, of Murchison, a transport driver. The crash occurred a mile north of Kawatiri and four miles south of Glenhope. From the evidence gained this morning, the machine struck a patch of bush at the top of a saddle, somersaulted, and crashed down a precipitous face into a creek bed. The scene was only about a mile and a-half from the main road, although the route down the creek bed was in parts impassable because of flooding, and the bush was nearly as bad. It was down this route that Mr Perry and the pilot struggled without lights and in pouring rain. When Mr Perry was picked up by Mr Hushes, he was driven to the Gowan Bridge store, where Mr and Mrs P. Diserent made him comfortable and communicated with the police. A party then went back to look for Flight Lieutenant Lewis, who was found lying in a small clearing in the bush 50 yards from the road. He was put in an ambulance, and first taken to the store and then to the Murchison Hospital. Early this morning he was transferred with the other injured to the Nelson Hospital. Mr Perry, too, received medical attention at Murchison.

It was a wild night, the rain coming down in torrents, with an occasional flurry of snow or sleet. Constable J. C. Moore, of Murchison, and formerly of Ashburton, organised search parties and soon after 2 a.m. about 30 district residents and Dr. R. A. Lucas, of Nelson, set out for the scene.

The first part of the journey was comparatively easy, but the going got worse and worse as the party penetrated the bush and got into broken, hilly country. The creek was running bank to bank in several places, and it would have been dangerous to try to claw a way along its banks, so the party hacked their way through the thick bush to make detours. Tangled Mass of Wreckage They found the aeroplane, a tangled mass of wreckage, with the injured passengers sheltering miserably under makeshift shelters constructed out of parts of the machine and strips of tornoff fabric. Dr. Lucas gave first aid on the scene, and then the injured were placed on stretchers for the return trip. Mr Mercer died from his injuries an hour and a-half before the stretcher party reached the spot. Matron Patterson, although her leg had been broken, gave first aid to the other passengers.

The trip out was even worse than the trip in, and relays were organised to take the strain off the hard-worked stretcher-bearers. The party was back on the road before 7 o’clock, where Dr. Paul Kunzweil assisted with the injured before they were taken to the Nelson Hospital by ambulance. “I don’t know how Mr Perry managed to make the trip,” said one of the stretcher party this morning. “His route took him over about three miles of some of the roughest country anywhere, and part of the journey had to be made down a precipitous hillside. “He was suffering from injuries to his ribs and had in some places to help the pilot, who, too. was in a bad way. How they did it without a light I don’t know. I wouldn't have done the same trip for a bet.” The country round Glenhope is heavily bushed, and broken by sharp gullies and rock faults, with numerous intersecting creeks which are the only practicable means of travel. Gold prospectors who work these streams have to use pack horses for their supplies. The main highway, which runs through the area, was literally hacked out of the rock and bush, and in places runs up to a height of more than 2000 feet.

Scene of Crash The saddle where the machine crashed was estimated to be about 3500 feet high. The face on which the machine crashed is not particularly steep, and is covered with sparse bush from 15ft to 20ft high. It is likely that this bush cushioned the shock of the crash, and more or less eased the aeroplane over the crest of the ridge. It ivas in the fall down the steep opposite face that the machine was smashed to pieces. The passengers were thrown out as the machine rolled down. Those who saw the wreckage this morning doubted whether it would be worth the difficulties involved in salvaging. The machine had been in service six months. It was not fitted with wireless. Dr. Lucas said that from what he could see in the dark and the pouringrain the pilot had made as good a landing as possible on the bush-covered ridge. he aeroplane had crashed very near a small creek which Messrs Perry and Lewis had followed down to the main road.

Although Dr. Lucas reached Kawatiri at 1 o’clock this morning it was 3.15 by the time he reached the crashed aeroplane. Rain was falling, and, with only electric torches to help them, the rescue party had a very difficult time. Transport of Injured Apart from relieving the pain of the injured, who were icy cold, with morphia, little could be done in the way of first, aid. Tire two injured women and Mr Strathmore were tied to stretehers and with six men to each, the difficult task of bringing them down the rough mountain slope was begun. It. was 715 o’clock this morning when the party reached the road. Tim injured persons were brought on to flic Nelson Public Hospital by ambulance, arriving shortly after j’o o’clock. Dr. Lucas paid a tribute this morning to Matron Patterson for her work in caring for the injured. She obtained morphia from the aeroplane’s first aid kit and gave wl.at relief she could to I.lie other passengers. The hospital reported to-day th-d none of the five injured was in m'lv immediate danger.

Arrangements have been made bv the Nelson police to bring the bodies to Nelson to-day. A partv organised for the purpose comnrised police Pub lie Works employees, and the ’Owen River miners. Mr G. H. Chapman, chairman of directors of Air Travel, New Zealand Limited, stated to-day that the NelsonHokitika service could not be resumed for two weeks, as the company's other plane suitable for I.lint, service was at present undergoing overhaul id Rongotai. The service from Hokitika would be continued. Mr Chapman visited the scene of the clash to-day, and said thi> plane was a conmjele wreck An Inquest into the deaths of Cantain Mercer and Mr Dawe was opened to-day and adjourned. Their bodies were taken to Hokitika for burial

LATE CAPTAIN MERCER Captain John Cuthbert Mercer, one of the pioneers of New Zealand aviation, secured his flying ticket in 1917 at the Canterbury Aviation School, Christchurch. He was retained as an instructor, and trained many pilots who later gained distinction in the 1914-18 war. He continued with the company for some time after the war. In 1921,"the Canterbury Aviation Company started a mail and passenger air service between Christchurch and Timaru. Through lack of patronage, the service lasted only two months. The Government took over the machines a,nd aerodrome and this was the beginning of the New Zealand Air Force.

Captain Mercer then joined the New Zealand Aero Transport Company, founded by Mr R. L. Wigley, with headquarters at Timaru. One of the early cross country flights made by Captain Mercer was when he piloted a D.H.9 machine from Timaru to Auckland, with Messrs R. L. Wigley and W. H. P. Fleming as passengers, in nine hours on October 25, 1921. This trip, which included calls at Kaikoura, Blenheim. Trentham and Hawera, was the longest one-day flight undertaken in the Dominion. This pioneer journey involved some risk, as there were no aerial maps of the route available; a forced landing was an ever-present prospect; and engine trouble could easily develop. Captain I "ercer was one of the originators of the Aero club movement, and in May, 1929, was appointed the first pilot-instructor of the Canterbury Aero Club. The first woman clubtaught pilot in New Zealand, the late Mrs Alfred Brustad, then Miss Aroha Clifford, was trained by him. In December, 1934, he commenced the first regular air service in New Zealand, from Inchbonnie to Hokitika, Haast, Okuru and Jackson’s Bay. One of his most notable achievements was to find, from the air, a party of three mountaineers in the Mount Aspiring area. These men. who were eight days overdue, were located by the aviator at the junction of the Arawata and Waipara rivers, South Westland, on February 7, 1934. Captain Mercer had participated in other successful searches for mountaineers, and tribute had frequently been paid him for his help in this regard. Tribute by Minister Deep regret at Captain Mercer’s death was expressed to-day by the Minister of Civil Aviation (the Hon. F. Jones) who said that Captain Mercer contributed probably more than any other individual to the successful establishment of commercial aviation in New Zealand. Mr Jones said that Captain Mercer had been the means of opening up what hitherto was a little known area of New Zealand—the West Coast of the South Island. New Zealand acknowledged her debt to Captain Mercer. The foundations he had laid would endure for all time, and on them would be built by a younger generation of New Zealanders the future air transportation system of the Dominion. Captain Mercer commenced flying in 1917 and had completed about 11.000 hours of successful flying as a pilot. He was widely known for his advocacy and practice of those principles and methods which have contributed so much to the increased safety of civil flying. It was in 1931 that Captain Mercer, with a Moth aircraft, hired from the Canterbury Aero Club, undertook the first pioneer and exploratory flights over Westland, and it was from the survey flights he made with MrJohn Wood, a former engineer-in-chief of the Public Works Department, that the road routes through South Westland which were under construction at the outbreak of the war were established. Following similar exploratory work Captain Mercer was instrumental in founding New Zealand’s first major air transport company to open this region. He remained chief pilot and manager for Travel (New Zealand) Limited at the time of his death. Late Mr Dawe Mr Maurice Dawe. - ho was "6, was the son of Mr Charles R. A. Dawe, a former city engineer in Christchurch. He was educated at the Christchurch,! Boys’ High School and played football for Old Boys. He was a referee for a number of years. For some time he was employed by the Union Steam Ship Company, and later joined the M.E.D. He then joined the accountancy firm of Wild and Wilkinson, on the West Coast. On the death of Mr Wild the firm was known as Wild, Wilkinson, and Dawe, and it was through the firm that Mr Dawe was connected with Air Travel (N.Z.), Ltd. He is survived by his wife, formerly Miss Helen Barnett.