PILOTS BLINDED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20330, 13 June 1934, Page 7

PILOTS BLINDED.

Brilliant Sunshine Causes Four Deaths. NEW ZEALAND CADET KILLED. (Special to the "Star.") LONDON. May 10 It is believed that a head-on collision between two R A F. machines, in which I light-Cadet A. J. Plugge, of Taupiri. New Zealand, was killed, was caused by the brilliant sun blinding the pilots at a height of .500 feet above Cranwell, the R.A.F. “ Sandhurst.” An officer and a cadet were in each plane on training flights. The other three killed were Flight-Lieutenant .TS. Tanner, Flying-Officer D. J. Doutbwaite and Flight-Cadet J. Askell-Ruth-erford. The wings or the aeroplanes were ripped off, and before the two machines landed In two fields about 150 yard* apart they had split into many pieces. Parachutes Fail. One of the men pulled the rip cord oi fiis parachute, but owing to the low alti tude at which the collision occurred there was not sufficient time to prevent liis being dashed to death. He landed in a tree. The three other bodies were found with their parachutes still strapped to them. The men had been hurled to death so rapidly that they had no time to aava themselves. Mr. R. Godsmark, a farm manager on the Earl of Londcsborough’s estate, near Sleaford, was the first to arrive on th* scene of the disaster. “I heard a terrifie explosion,” he said to a “Daily Expreaa’* representative, “and saw two aeroplanes hurtling towards the ground. Engines Buried.* “When I reached the spot, which is about half a mile from the LincolnSleaford Road. I found that underneath one of the machines were two bodies. On going over to the other wreckage there were two more' bodies. The machines had crashed to the ground nose-first, and the engines were embedded in the soil to a considerable depth. An ambulance was soon on the scene, and the bodies were removed to Cranwell.” This was the sixth R.A.F. accident this year. Eleven airmen have been killed. It was the first quadruple accident since February, 1033. when four airmen lost their lives at Wexcombe. Wilts.