SOUVENIRS FROM DAMAGED ’PLANE WERE WANTED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18888, 14 October 1929, Page 10

SOUVENIRS FROM DAMAGED ’PLANE WERE WANTED.

MEN TRIED TO GET AWAY WITH PARTS OF AERO CLUB MOTH

Souvenir hunters were quickly on the scene of yesterday’s forced landing when a Moth aeroplane was damaged. Before the pilot had left the site of the mishap, small boys were searching round for pieces of the damaged fuselage.

Some adults commenced to help themselves to parts of the machine, and had it not been for Staff Sergeant-Major F. Brown, of the Defence Department. the machine would have quickly been stripped. Mr Brown lives close by the scene of the landing, and he, with one or two others, took charge until the Air Force officers and Police-Ser-geant Murray arrived.

As it was, two men nearly came to blows over a broken piece of the propeller. One man tried to stop another from taking it away, and while the argument was going on, someone else stole the piece.

Pieces of the painted three-ply wood which formed the fuselage were popular with those who were keen on a memento, and as there were a number of strips lying around, no one was stopped from taking them. These soon became exhausted, however, and it was when the public attempted to remove pieces from the machine that SergeantMajor Brown stepped in. As it was, the fire extinguisher was taken, and has not been recovered. A man was stopped in the act of getting away with the windscreen, and another was stopped from removing a pedal that was loose. A number of policemen arrived a little later, and guarded the machine while it was being dismantled.