SPECIAL INQUIRY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20509, 10 January 1935, Page 1

SPECIAL INQUIRY.

Cause of Dutch Air Crash to Be Investigated. UNCERTAINTY IN HOLLAND. United Press Assn. —By 'Electric Tel eg: aph—Copyright. (Received January 10, 11 a.m.) THE HAGUE, January 9. Owing to the uncertainty regarding the cause of the “ Flying Hotel ” disaster the Government is appointing an official committee of investigation. The “ Flying Hotel,” the large Douglas plane which flew into second place in the Melbourne Centenary Air Race, was wrecked on December 20, when it crashed ten miles south of Rutbah Wells, 250 miles from Baghdad. The crew and three passengers, all Dutch, were killed and the machine was destroyed by fire. Last Saturday M. Plesman, manager of Royal Dutch Air Lines, returned to The Hague by air with the commissioners who inquired into the Douglas disaster. He says that, though the first medical examination of the victims suggested that lightning caused their deaths, the commissioners now reported that the victims were killed in a crash, in which their necks were broken. M. Plesman added that the cause of the accident was still unknown. The machine was in good flying condition, and there were no engine defects or constructional faults. The Commissioners’ report states that the aeroplane must have struck the ground, risen again and crashed 100 yards farther on. where it was destroyed. The victims were killed after the crash, breaking their necks.

REPORT ATTACKED. Air Ministry’s Finding on Crash. LONDON’, January 9. Complaining that the report of the Air Ministry Inspector of Accidents on the crash of a Ilillman Airways aeroplane on October 2, 1934, had been delayed for three months and declaring that' it would not have been published had Mr Hillman lived, five members of Hillman Airways have issued a statement deprecating the findings. They point out that the claim that the machine was flown into the water was pure assumption. The accident night have been due to hundreds of causes. They stigmatise the finding that the non-receipt of the bearing of the plane from Croydon did not affect the accident, as being typical of the Air Ministry’s attitude in view of the many attempts by air operators to secure independent wireless communication enabling the control of their own aircraft.