THIRD IN WEEK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 169, 22 July 1935, Page 7

THIRD IN WEEK

I ♦ I DUTCH AIR-LINE CRASH DISASTER TO FLYING HOTEL | FOURTEEN OCCUPANTS DEAD (By Teh’graph- - Presa Association—Copyright) Received July 21, 7.J p.m. MILAN, July 20. The Royal Dutch air liner Phakg of the Flying-hotel type, en route from Milan to Frankfurt, clashed near San Bernardino, Switzerland, during a severe storm. The 13 occupants killed included two British, the others being Dutch. The cause of the disaster is unknown. CRASH OX' MOUNTAIN LONE SURVIVOR SOON DIES Received July 21, 9.5 p.m. BERND, July 20. I'lie British dead in the flying-hotel disaster are Commander Arthur Watts ami Air Louis Alariano Nesbit, mining engineer and author of romantic books on Abyssinia, where he adventuriously travelled in districts from which whites formerly had not returned alive. Commander Watts was hastening from Italy to rejoin his wife, who rc- ' cently gave birth to a second son. An airline company official states that Pilot Vanderveist, when crossing the frontier of Switzerland, encountered a fog and asked for a bearing from Milan fifteen minutes before the crash. Then he wound in the aerial owing to a thunderstorm. He came out of the clouds and found himself too near the ground, and therefore attempted to climb up through the clouds, when he collided with the mountainside. Villagers of San Bernardino state that the ’plane crashed into a pine forest, clothing a deep ravine with su‘cli violence that the debris was flung up the steep hillside. A propeller was later found embedded in a tree 50 yards distant. Rescuers rushed to the spot and found all dead but Mademoiselle Herman ides, the first of four stewardesses recently engaged, who was making her first trip from Holland. She was hastily extricated, but died in a few minutes. SERVICE SUSPENDED PUBLIC DEEPLY SHOCKED Received July 21. 7.40 p.m. THE HAGUE, June 20. The public are deeply shocked at the third disaster in a week after a long period of almost total freedom from accidents. With the tragedy the airline announces the suspension of the Milan service until the cause of the disaster has been established. It will be operated by Lufthansa. Two out of 15 passengers and four of the crew were killed when a Dutch airliner crashed at an Amsterdam aerodrome on July 14. The aeroplane developed engine trouble after taking off and returned, crashing while landing and taking fire. The machine was a four-engined Fokker, one of the bigI gest passenger aeroplanes in the worlil. I On July 17 a Dutch mail aeroplane crashed at Bushire when taking-off for Bagdad and was completely burnt and the mails destroyed. Seven passengers and the crew of four escaped with only slight injuries. Immediately the news was received at The Hague, the wellknown pilot Parmentier left in another Douglas machine to pick up the stranded passengers. These included two Britons, two women and a" six-months-old baby. BUSHIRE CRASH PASSENGERS PICKED Up. PARMENTIER'S FACT FLIGHT. BAGDAD? July 19. The airman Parmentier picked up the passengers of the smashed Douglas ’plane after a record flight. He hopes to reach Amsterdam to-morrow, covering 7<>o(j miles in 34 (lavs.