Thirty-Three Lose Lives In French And United States Air Crashes

Chronicle (Levin), 30 November 1949, Page 5

Thirty-Three Lose Lives In French And United States Air Crashes

(N.Z.P.A.-

-Reuter%

Copyright)

Received Wednesday, 12.5 p.m. ^ LONDON, November 29. Thirty-three persons wete killid in two air crashes today, one baby is missing and 31 persons were injured. ,One crash occurred in the United States- and the other jn France* Eighty-three persons were involved altogether and in each crash the survivors were lucky to escape death.

In the United States crash an American Airlines DC6 carrying 41 passengers and five of a crew, en route from Washington to MeXiCo City, hit an aviation school building on the airfield at Dallas, Texas, at it was coming in to land. Twenty-seven persons were killed, another person died in hospital and a baby is missing. Fourteen were injured and three others escaped uninjured. A watchman at the airfield said the plane struck the aviation school building, then bounced across the field and struck anther building and burst into flames. CBoth buildings and the plane were wrecked and burned fiercely for two hours. Firemen had to use grappling hooks to pull the wreckage of the plane from the burning building. The bodies were so charred that they wsre listed as only male or female. A man who described himself as the co-pilot staggered away from the blazing plane and said : "I want to make a statement. No. 4 engine was afire on approach. I cut all the engines. They were off when we hit." The man, who was wounded in the head, was taken to hospital by ambulanee. One of the surviving passengers said: "I noticed the left-hand outside propeller was feathered. We were kind of low for landing. Then the pilot saw he couldn't make it. He Siarted to race the engines, but all that happened was a terrific amount of vibration followed by a tremendous smash.

I kieked out the ehiergerLcy door near my seat and crawxed along the wings as the flames burned my face. As. I staggered away, the plane was nothing but a heap of flames." Andther sUfvivor said the airliner crashed with a terrific impac't, but his seat belt held. After unfastening the belt, he saw a man open the emergency door and followed him to safety. Other Survivors then staggered through the door. Among the passengers killed was a Briton, Lieut.-Golonel Aubrey Fane, King's messenger, Who was on the way from Washington to Mexico City on official business. In France a fog-bound French Skymaster crashed into a hillside and caught fire, killing two members of the crew and . three passengers. Seventeen others of the 37 people aboard were seriously injured and are in hospital at Lyons. The plane was bound from Paris to« Tunis, and was trying to land at Lyons airfield. The pilot missed his mark by ten miles. Eye-witnesses said that the plane hit a hill, rebounded from a tree and laid ils fuselage across a country road, where it burst into flames. Two stewardesses were the only members of the crew killed. The dead passengers included a survivor of the "Bataan Death March" and a man who was on his way to attend his mother's funeral at Dallas.