CAUSE NOT KNOWN

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 87, 7 January 1935, Page 7

CAUSE NOT KNOWN

Crash of Dutch Air Liner

COMMISSION’S REPORT

The Hague, January 4

Mynheer Plesman, manager of the Royal Dutch Air Line, has returned from Bagdail by air with the commissioners who inquired into the disaster to the Douglas air liner in the Syrian Desert. He says that though the first medical examination of the victims suggested that lightning caused the deaths, the commissioners now reported that the victims were killed in the crash, their necks being broken. The cause of the accident was still unknown. The machine was in good flying condition and there were no engine defects nor constructional faults. The aeroplane after landing in the desert when flying at 150 miles an hour! traversed a distance of 100 yards and then overturned.

The Hague correspondent of “The Tinies,” a London cable reports, states that the commission reported to an urgent meeting of the Koya I Dutch Air lines that a close investigation indicated that lightning had not caused the accident. The aeroplane must have struck the ground, risen again, and crashed 300 yards further on and been destroyed. The victims were killed after the crash, the fall breaking their necks. The aeroplane overturned at 150 miles an hour. No fault of construction was disclosed, and the cause of the accident is uncertain. AIR LINER CHARTERED Opening of Oil Pipe Line PARTY FROM ENGLAND London, January 4. The "Daily Telegraph” states that a 42-seater Imperial Airways air liner leaves. Croydon to-morrow to take a party to Iraq and back. This is the largest aeroplane ever privately chartered in England. It takes a party of guests to Iraq for the official opening of the pipe lines to carry oil from Kirkuk to Tripoli and Haifa. The flight will)be made in 300 or 400mile daily stages. The guests will eat and sleep in hotels. The King of Iraq will perform the first opening ceremony at Kirkuk on January 14. Thereafter there will be ceremonies at Damascus, Tripoli, and Haifa, and a final function at Amman. FIRST FLIGHT MADE Duchess of Kent Enjoys Trip (Received January 6. 11-5 p.m.) Le Bourget, January 5.’ "I enjoyed it very much,” said the Duchess of Kent when, accompanied by the Duke, she landed after a flight m an Imperial Airways plane from Croydon en route to Munich to visit relatives. It was the Duchess’s first flight. AUSTRALIAN’S FLIGHT London. January, 4, Mr. D. Collins, an Australian, has left for Marseilles on a flight to Australia. He will pick up his companion, Mr. D. Wylie, at Rome. Mesdames Collins and Wylie have left England for Australia by steamer. RETURN TO AUSTRALIA Los Angeles, January 4. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith announces that he is sailing on Wednesday for Australia. He is leaving bls aeroplane behind. It will possibly be sold.