WRECKED AIR-LINER

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19458, 24 December 1934, Page 7

WRECKED AIR-LINER

VICTIMS BADLY BURNED.

IDENTIFICATION IMPOSSIBLE. TRAGIC COINCIDENCE. United Press Assn. —Flee. Tel. Copyrrgrnt. CAIRO, Dec. 22. When the seven victims of the disaster to the Douglas air liner which crashed 250 miles from Bagdad were extricated from the smouldering debris they were so badly burned that identifloatiion was almost impossibleAmbulance men carried' the remains to armoured cars in which a salvage party had arrived. A large proportion of the mails was saved. The correct names of the victims are:—Commander Beekman (pilot); Messrs Steenbergen, -second officer; H. W’aalewyn, mechanic; C. van Zadelhoff, wireless operator; and three passengers, Messrs D. Beretty, director of the Anita News Agency, Batavia; D. 'Kort; and Professor Walch, of Batavia University. All were Dutchmen. A tragic coincidence was that the crash must have occurred while Messrs Parmentier and Moll, who flew the liner in the Centenary air race, were guests at p. dinner in London in honour of their Melbourne flight. One theory is that the machine was struck by lightning before the radio operator sent, out the last wireless message. Sudden thunderstorms in ■this area send up whirling columns of dust and sometimes form a sandspout. The scene of the tragedy is within reach of a British armoured car station at Rutbah.

BAGDAD, Dec- 22

The salvage party found'the Douglas machine upside down and the bodies of two oT the passengers and three of the- crew several yards away. One ■wheel of the undercarriage and one propeller were some distance away. The tail at the rear portion of the fuselage was intact. It is suggested that the pilot was endeavouring to land during the height of the thunderstorm and chose a stretch of ground which in the fitful light of -the almost continuous lightning looked like a possible landing place, but really was ditto better than a swamp. The aeroplane was violently overturned and broken to pieces. The tire was inevitable.