SIX AIRMEN KILLED

Chronicle (Levin), 22 July 1947, Page 5

SIX AIRMEN KILLED

Press Assn .

Series of Mishaps to Naval Aircraft

By Telegraph

-Copyright

MELBOURNE, Juiy 21. A series of aircraft accidents, which occurred within an hour, resulted in six men of the visiting Royal Xavy squadron being killed and one injured, and seven carrier planes either lost or damaged. The squadron was exercising in . Port Phillip Bay in clear, cairn, weather. Four aircrew members of the eompany on the aircraft-carrier Theseus were killed when two Firefly fighters eollided in the air off Frankston. Later a Seafire single-seater fighter crashea on the deek when landing on the Theseus, killing a seaman on duty -in the walkway beside the runway. At about the same time a Seatire attempted to land on the carrier Giory, but missed the trip wires and crashed through the arrestor wires into planes parked on the deck. One declchand was killed and another injured. An-. other Seafire crashed in landing on the Glory when a tyre burst, but nobody was injured. A Firefly from the Theseus piled up when landing at Point Cook. The undercarriage is believed to have eoilapsed. The occupants were not injurfed. Two Fireflvs were lost in the sea. Three planes aboard the Theseus, the one damaged aboard the Glory, and possibly the one at Point Cook will be written off. Observers aboard the Theseus saw the two Fireflvs collide at .1500 feet about two miles ahead when manoeuvring to fall into formation. Locked logether they turned slowly and then dropped away and dived into the sea. When the Theseus arrived the only sign of the tragedy was a patch of oii, One body was later recovered by the destrover Cockade. A newspaper photographer and a newsreel caine'raman were among those who 'dropped from the deek into the safety nets when the fatal crash occurred on the Theseus. The mishaps on the earriers. were attributed to the failure of the natural wind, causing the earriers to create suitable landing conditions by steamihg direetly into a glaring sun. This made conditions extremely dilfleult for the pilots who could not- see the signals of the batmen.