A PUBLIC ENQUIRY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 254, 27 October 1938, Page 7

A PUBLIC ENQUIRY

AIRLINER DISASTER RADIO BEACON THAT NEVER' OPERATED [By Telegraph—Pre* Association—Copyright) Received Oct. 26, 5.5 p.m. MELBOURNE, Oct. 26. It is estimated that the Kyeema crashed when travelling at 200 miles an hour. The plane had flown 30 miles past the Essendon aerodrome | ajirl was off its course. ■ Mr. and Mrs. Gloe were flying-to Tasmania on their honeymoon. I Since the beginning of 1934 115 lives i have been lost in civil aviation in Australia. Fifty of these victims were killed in disasters to airliners and the others were killed in accidents to private planes. One of the most disturbing a. pects of the Kyeema disaster is the fact that a Lorenz short-wave radio navigation beacon, which has been installed at Essendon aerodrome for more than H year was not and never has been in operation because the Civil Aviation Department has not completed the necessary final tests ajid adjustments. The Minister of Defence, Mr. H. V. C. Thorby, announced in Canberra that a public inquiry into the crash, will be held by the Air Accidents Investigation Committee. This is the first time that the Government has agreed to have an investigation into the cause of an accident made i<n public. Mr. Thorby also said he had called for an immediate report about the short-wave radio navigation beacon which has never been operated, and added, “If I have to bear any responsibility 1 will not shirk it.”