TRAPPED IN PLANE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 9, 11 January 1941, Page 6

TRAPPED IN PLANE

DEATH OF AIRCRAFTSMAN

CRASH INTO MANAWATU RIVER

[ Per Press Association. ] FOXTON, Jan. 10. The body of Leading Aircraftsman K. J. Haase, of Nelson, was recovered from the wreckage of the crashed plane in the Manawatu River by the Air Force salvage gang. Haase was trapped in the tunnel between the two cockpits by a strap clip catching on a wire. The wreckage of the machine was recovered from the river to-day. When flying at a low altitude along the Manawatu River in an easterly direction at 2.15 on Thursday afternoon a Vincent biplane from the Blenheim Air Force Station struck high ■ tension power lines across the river about 300 yards west, of the Whirokino Bridge, near Foxton, tipped up, and nose-dived into the river. One of the occupants was urowned, but the other believed to have been in thn rear cockpit, was saved by the prompt action of a carpenter, Mr. Maurice Parsons, of Palmerston North, who was working on a new building on the riverbank nearby. Ti>e victims were: Leading Aircraftman Kennard James Haase, drowned. Next-of-kin, Mrs. H. Haase. 103 Kowai Road, Nelsen Leading Aircraftman Cecil William Holmes, cuts to face, abrasions, and possible internal injuries. Father, Captain A. Holmes, Defence Department, Hawera.