FATAL FLIGHT.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18690, 13 May 1926, Page 13

FATAL FLIGHT.

CRASH.

NOBODY AT FAULT.

CORONER'S ENQUIRY CONCLUDED.

Cpbie details of the fatal flight /thel Bristol Fighter aeroplane, 1007 Ifh craehed in the Methodist 'Lh.naee grounds, Papanui, on the •Jof March 17th, and in which ■XX Frederick James Horrell and Smas Lew" Reid lost their lives, : '£Tfieut. Purcer A. Tuurner expena miraculous escape from death, Mr H. i'- Widdowson, gj*£ the Lower Court yester*!'.»r«rv to expectations, the Court~*as deserted, save for those im*SLsf concerned «ith the enquiry, rffi conclusion of much medical and expert evidence by the Coroner returned tt wrdicts that the men died from Wm received in the smash, and "'fannd tlK> that it was. purely an "•Sal crash, exonerating anyone •"imSiry «•" conducted for the i*iffl by Senior-Sergeant A. 11. tftJe Captain L. M. Isitt, Sding officer at the Wigram *sn», watched the proceedings for jTnrfence Department, "rtiltte Captain Horrell was a memJw the Permanent Air Force, and SAad been employed at the aerobe for some months.

I Heui Turner's Testimony. t Cfcief among the witnesses was Lieut. Cer. the sole survivor of the fatal ffi ? His left arm was hanging St in a sling. At the suggestion Wi\» Coroner, the officer, who has '% Vet recovered from his injuries and % shook, sat while ho gave his eviV 's£ttfc, Turner stated that in 1916 ho I Flying Coq.s in Engrank of lieutenSt He'flow in the Great War, and I Sit Since that time he had been conM& with an aerodrome. Ho had M * varied experience. On March I Ukitiit b* reported at the Wigram : iwidroine' for the annual refresher 1 tfWt) which was instituted to refresh tffi memory of the airmen. At about 120 o'olock on the evening of the 1 litility, ho left the aerodrome in the Bristol Filter. 1557, piloted by CapSi,,, Horrell, w ho was a very fine flyer ijth a record. It was intended as a {rjininif fl.v. and Captain Horrell occupied< the cockpit (which was inimediItelj behind the ermine), and Lieut. tfojier * is d' rec tly behind Captain Befell and. sitting next to him in tie'rear cockpit, was Ke,:d Justwhen ito'engine-was warming up prior to tltf'plane "taking off." Reid had retak&i Captain Horrell to take him ■Sally and Captain Horrell had eon"\/f.'•;■■' Looping the Loop. ' iftir taking off from the aerodrome .{Jiei Jitter Circled the aerodrome, and Wff headed towards Papanui. When &w«e flying above Papanui they *W|W height of 2000 feet, according tf.'M'illi-ffleter in Captain Horrell'a -fdtphViffluch was seen by Lieutenant Mer. ''Then Captain Horrell turned iWdnd and nodded to Lieutenant Jtaer. This meant that Captain Horhim. Lieu* temii Turner stood up in his seat and imSw;ifawatdg-iCaptain Horrell, who laifii! if I loop?" The witMßWwlSeid, who said he did not mind, and Lieutenant Turner comBttjn'cated, this' to the pilot. Captain Horrell then indicated by a movement of bis Band 'fljatheWas about to loop. ; Toe McKine;tobk the first |loop ordin- . airih/, pilbt'shut the engine ofvwhen the machine'was coming out oh;t!ie v top.of the second loop; just as hMnad .dpfle>o'n the first loop. The Battinefca'tne out of?; the second loop ; '';<|ulsjjall %h&and thelnose of the aeroon> nose down, then the tail of the •liicliine I 'Began moving about in a Ijiafclon which Lieutenant Turner did j!Wt'thil^;; the machine was ft wis doina a straight tdiVe. for..the) Methodist Orphanand^'the' buildings were looming :WsyoiTreraelnbeT-nothing after you hit s<mhr then f" asked the Police SeniorSp)nryes-; before we hit the ground." |Hwtenartt Turner stated, "Captain |iwji!rell switched on his ensine again. ||W)ii|h¥lle /wai trying to pull the ijjfijijhe out of the spin—to recover."

,$i " The Crash. {' ' A seem t0 y° a us ' l Captain . :»)ntU attempted to dear the Orphaiijjftf ' He switched the engine off again "X& ne ty tl)e U rou " (i ''" ea 'd tue i ■gsjit& Turner said that, iu his opinHon oil made a Una] at#SM to, prevent the machine crashing ' JJrphanage. The engine had ping perfectly before; and as •red tho earth the tail got into iral position again, in I came to," the officer went Has lying across Ileid's body . but I'm hazy as to what hapafter that. . . .1 think I remember someone trying to id out of the> machine, and I can recollect being driven to ipital In the ambulance." »t do you attribute the crash restioned the Coroner. 5 Turner said he did not know. the got into a spin and Captain [had done bis best to get it out That was all. Tho spins were gerous; every pilot had to learn •—they were not unusual. Ho pot pass aii opinion as to' " the machine was too low for rag of the spin because he did „„, w the height before the crash; fftW would say that it would he safe fiffVJ ISQO f ee fc «P or « v en lower, 'tfifij d $P en( M on the ability of tho l|&T OUt Mwnor y is Remarkable." 2E° P to taking up Jus refresher '-ffiS?!! B ' 3 ' pilot " ad to medically \ffiWK7 and no one wn.- allowed to jfi? 111 b f had been certified to by a £$H? **? bein « medically at *W^f a U , Ht aske d K Captain Hor--1"? toospin, had exercised anv fiSr* 1 "wengtb in operating the con'!Uff;„~:- Ll<fu Jb. Turner answered in "Megatne Thee had been no ob*ilril!?A n,y has not ~cen <i» ite the ,-qwwnco the crash?" Mr Widdowson ; jffJKJiirner: No, sir; it has not kSS^ 0 Same Bince - 1 "«™ not ' T iW. x samo sinco mv self. . . "Vfct 1 yet "covered.»• V that y° m meniorv Coroner. MBftifi? * nwka °l<v' &niorKaeWM a, - w tbe orash - ? f the state of the jt? 1 £ crash was e iTCn b y ii *m^lay, a permanent 'SSwS'A 2* drome > w »o arrived on the soon after the crash. WmiMrl i H l ' mast was intact, but the machine was badly I|fmßss£ "hen I got there, 25 minKfT 1 ' "«• were only two parts

missing—taken by the- public—and that would not interfere with my examination," he told the Court. A Young Eye-Witness. A boy named Leonard George Lane, an inmate of the Methodist Orphanage, deposed that he had just ai rived home from work no about 5.30 o'clock that afternoon when ho noticed an aeroplane flying towards the- Orphanage. It was lower than he had usually seen aeroplanes flying, and it had been doing some stunts, It looped-the-loop, seemed to stop at the top of one loop, and then crashed to the ground about ten yards away from him in the Orphanage grounds. "I was the first on the spot," he added. "Tell me how it fell," the Coroner said. '

Tho boy: It came down at an angle, sir. . . . When I got to it I saw two men first and then another. I lifted the head of the man in the front seat of the aeroplane, but ho seemed to be dead. ... I turned to Mr Reid and his head was on the concrete path and he was bleeding at the mouth.

People Pulled off Pieces of 'Plane. "Two or three minutes after Constable Miller arrived on the scene, and then tho ambulance- came. . . •

Other people cam© about then, too. Xo, sir; there was no delay in getting tho men away," the boy told the Coroner. "But they only took ono at a time."

"Were there many people there?" asked the Coroner.

"Yes," answered the boy. "there were two or threo hundred altogether." "And they swarmed about?" — "Yes, sir." "Did they take away pieces of the aeroplane while you were there?" — "Yes, sir. They did take away pieces." Concerning the "Spins." Evidence was also given by Captain Isitt, who said that he had known both Horrell and Reid. Reference to the Air Log Book disclosed, he said, that Captain Horrell had flown in the Bristol Fighter, 1557, on the morning of the fatal crash. In fact, Captain Isitt had himself flown the same machine at about 4 o'clock that afternoon. He had carried passengers and had not looped-the-loop. Questioned by the Coroner to when a man should loop-the-loop, Captain Isitt stated that a pilot should be able to loop at any length if everything went all right—even at 150 feet. Regarding the "spin" he said at one time "spin" was considered dangerous, but now an experienced pilot found not the slightest difficulty in coming out of a spin, which was quite safe provided the pilot had sufficient length to come out of it. The engine in the machine was a Rolls-Falcon engine of 250 horsepower, and was in first-class order, having only been used 1! hours 15 minutes. "The cause of the accident was obviously the spin," Captain Isitt declared". "But whether it was a voluntary or an involuntary spin it is impossible to say. In a spin, the acceleration had been known, to cause giddiness, resulting in an accident; but Captain Horrell had spun many times without any bad results." Many pilots had suffered from giddiness, but not to such an extent as <-0 impair judgment in righting the machine. "However," he stated, "when an accident occurs under those circumstances no fault can be attributed to the pilot. Ido not think the fumes from the petrol would affect him in any way. I have heard Lieut. Turner's description of the flight and I cannot understand his description of the tail of the machine. '. . . The height necessary for a 'plane to come out of a spin is.abpnt six.or eight hundred feet. To come out of a spin one must put a machine into a direct dive and must hold that dive until the pilot gets flying speed. He gets that by normal gravity, and he uses his engine to pick his machine up more quickly. . . Apparently Captain Horrell was too low to recover himself. . . .The wisest height to loop-the-loop at is 2000 feet—it gives one a chance,'' he ended. Tho Coroner intimated that he had no reason to believe that Captain Horrell had looped at less than six hundred to eight hundred feet. The spin had caused the crash. "I understand," he said, "that pieceß of the 'plane were taken away by the public." . Captain Isitt: Yes sir; some people took pieces away. "Would the pieces taken away militate against you forming an opinion as to the cause of the crash?"

"No," Captain Tsitt replied, "it would not."

Testimony as to the state of the engine of the Fighter, 1557, was given by Sergeant-Mechanic William S. Simpson, of the Permanent Force, who said it was perfect.

The Medical Evidence. Medical evidence was given by Dr. William E. Minty, house surgeon at the Christchurcl) Hospital, who testified that Kcid was dead when he was taken out of the ambulance at the hospital. An examination revealed, that his injuries were lacerations to the check, -that the front teeth were shattered, the lower jaw fractured, and that th'ero were injuries to his ear and chest. In the doctor's opinion death was due to fracture of the base of the skull, causing laceration of the brain. On the following morning he examined Horrell, and discovered that his injuries comprised lacerated wounds on the left ear and at the back of the neck; bleeding from the mouth, nose, and ears; wounds on the loft hand; a compound fracture of both thigh bones, and abrasions on the left leg and elbow. The neck was very stiff, but it did not appear to be broken. Death was caused, in his opinion, by a fracture of the base of the skull, causing laceration of the brain. Shock, following injuries other than the fracture of the skull suffered by Horrell, would alone have caused his death. Coroner's Verdict. "It is quite unnecessary for me to sum up tho evidence given at this inquiry," the Coroner said, in returning his verdict. "The evidence has been put very clearly and plainly before the Court: and tho only point is: What caused the machine to come down? It appeared to have come down) as the result of a spin, which, as Captain Isitt has said, might occur to any pilot. But I want to make it quito clear that there was no fault on the part of tho pilot. Captain Horrell appeared to have recovered tho machine to a certain extent, but evidently it was too late. Whatever the cause, it may bo attributed to an accident." He then returned his formal findings, that Captain Horrell had died as tho result of a fracture.of the base of the skull, associated with other injuries sustained through the aeroplane accidentally crashing to tho ground; and that Keid died later the same evening, also from a fracture of the skull received in the accidental smash.