BLOWN TO PIECES

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 903, 26 October 1933, Page 1

BLOWN TO PIECES

American Air Mail Crash Due to Explosives. CHICAGO, October IS. The United Airlines plane, which crashed while crossing Indiana on Tuesday' night, killing seven people, was literally blown in halves by high explosives. This was announced by David Coly.er, vice-president of United Airlines, following the Department of Justice investigation. What kind of bomb caused the destruction of the plane, and whether it was a liquid or solid explosive, probably never will be known, but indications are that explosive was stored in the cargo space aft. The passenger section, and rear section were torn apart high in the air, and five passengers perished when the plane caught fire on striking the ground. “ It’s not >'et possible to trace why' the explosive was aboard the plane,” said Mr Colyer, who added that the unmistakable evidence of the cause of the disaster came after a microeupie examination of particles of metal and cloth, found in the debris after the smash. The tail of the plane was found intact, where it had been blown off, a mile and a quarter distant from the main wreckage, and two unburned bodies lay alongside the tail. With the tail gone, the plane became uncontrollably nose-heavy, and dived to the earth.

Ey'e-w’itnesses also testified that the first crash of the explosion occurred high in the air, but no flames intervened until the forward part of the plane hit the earth. Experts testified that a petrol explosion could not have caused the type of damage encountered.