REPORT ATTACKED

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 90, 10 January 1935, Page 9

REPORT ATTACKED

Cause of Air Liner’s Crash

(Received January 9, 6.45 p.m.)

London, January 9.

Complaining that the report of the Inspector of Accidents had been delayed three months and declaring that it would not have been published if Mr. Hillman had lived, five members of Hillman Airways issued a statement deprecating the findings.

They point out that the claim that the machine was flown into the water is pure assumption. The accident might have been due to hundreds of causes. They stigmatise the finding that nonreceipt of a bearing- from Croydon did not affect the accident as typical of the Air Ministry’s attitude in view of the many attempts by air operators to secure independent wireless communication enabling them to control their own aircraft.

A cable dated January 7 states that the Air Ministry's inspector of accidents attributed the Hillman air liner's crash to the pilot’s lack of skill in navigation. Apparently he attempted to fly within sight of ground landmarks instead of above the clouds where the weather was good. The pitot in attempting to pick up tlie eoastline again, flow into tlie sea, not distinguishing its glassy surface through the mist. Early in October the lives of six passengers and the pilot were lost when an aeroplane belonging to Hillman Airways crashed into the Channel three miles from Folkestone, while proceeding from Abridge, Essex, to Le Bourget. Wreckage was found by the German cargo steamer •Leander, and the cross-Channel steamer Biarritz brought five of the bodies into Folkestone. Rain was tailing, and visibility was very poor at the time of the disaster. Three of the passengers were French, two British, ami one American. The pilot, W. R. Bannister, was a war-time airman of great experience. This was the first accident Hillman Airways has had. TUITION IN FLYING Air League Starts Fund (Received January 10, 12.20 a.m.) London, January 9. The Air League, in an effort io enable comparatively poor young men to learn to fly, is starting a “Young Pilots’ Fund,” to which candidates will be able to subscribe weekly. The league is doubling the amount collected with the aim of assisting 800 to learn to fly annually. Lord Londonderry, Air Secretary, has approved the scheme.