PASSENGERS’ LUCKY ESCAPE WHEN PLANE CRASHES IN SNOW

Wanganui Chronicle, 20 November 1950, Page 8

PASSENGERS’ LUCKY ESCAPE WHEN PLANE CRASHES IN SNOW

BLENHEIM, Yesterday, (P.A.).— All three men who were missing yesterday on a flight from Blenheim to Hokitika are safe. Their plane, an Auster belonging to the Middle Districts Aero Club, Palmerston North, crashed 40 feet from the summit of 7000 ft. high Mt. Fairy Queen, in the Spencer range, near Hanmer, but they escaped unhurt. They are P. B. Legg, pilot, of Feilding, and W. Tatham and B. T. MeDavitt, both of Awakino.

The crash occurred, it is thought, about 8.15 yesterday, and in a long, arduous day, the men were able to make their way off the mountain to the Waiau River, which they followed down until they reached a hut on the Ada Station. There they left a note saying that they were safe, and indicating their intention to continue following the river. The note was found last evening by F. Hampton, of the neighbouring St. James Station, who had spent the day deerstalking. Hampton set out after the party and caught up with them about 9 p.m., and-took them on to Wilner’s Hut, on St. James Station, then, proceeding alone to the station, which he reached at 2 a.m., he telephoned the news to Christchurch. This morning Hampton is taking horses back to Wilner’s Hut to bring the party into the St. James Station, from where they will go by truck to Hanmer and catch the 1 p.m. service car to Christchurch. STRUCK PATCH OF SNOW The pilot, in a graphic account of the mishap this afternoon, said that the fact that the aircraft struck a patch of snow undoubtedly helped to save him and his two friends. Legg said that two or three minutes before the crash he was flying at about 5500 ft., which left the aircraft possibly 900 ft. under the cloud ceiling. Suddenly the Auster was whisked up in an air current to 7500 ft., and Legg found himself flying blind through a thick layer of cloud. He then found himself caught in a tremendous down draught. This brought the machine down to 6000 ft. in two or three seconds.

Just as Legg was pulling the aircraft up again, the crash came. The Auster w*as climbing at full throttle through cloud that even hid the wingtips at times, when a slight gap revealed that the machine was only 30 yards away from the mountain face and was heading straight for it. As the Auster was driven forward to the towering peak, Legg just had time to call out, “ Hold tight,” as he tried to swing away.

The pilot was unable to avoid the crash, however, and the Auster struck in a patch of snow about two feet thick.

“I felt just a slight bump, but no real jar,” Mr Legg said. “We heard a bang and found out that was the tail wheel where a spring had broken I suffered a slight scratch on my cheek, but a little plaster fixed that up, otherwise we were unharmed.”