KENT AIR DISASTER

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 36, 12 February 1930, Page 11

KENT AIR DISASTER

SURVIVOR'S STORY TAIL PROVES DEFECTIVE LONDON, 11th February. Mr. Hugh Curzon, ono of tlio survivors of the crash at Harden, Kent, of a 'French .air-liner, interviewed, said that after their tleparturo tho engine was misfiring and the liner returned to Le Bourget. Tho plugs wore changed and the journey resumed-. The trouble was due to the tail of the aeroplane. "Tho pilot, Losoullier, told us it necessitated descending, and ho hoped to get clown safely. There was no panic when the crash came. I was standing up and was thrown down in a semi-unconscious condition," said Mr. Curzon. "I came round with a great effort of will. I saw flames' and climbed out." Eye-witnesses stated that the tail of the aeroplane was flapping when tho liner crashed. Mr. Hodges was badly burned, and his wife's body was only identified by a bangle. She was only twenty-one. Sho was so thrilled by a former air trip that she determined to go on her houey-^ moon by air so that her husband could also have tho experience. The aeroplane flew woll from Paris and suddenly developed trouble ovor Kent. The pilot endeavoured to make a landiug in some snow-covered fields, but dropped direct into a farmers-padd-ock. An eye-witness declares that he saw tho machine'flying low, apparently out of control, for its nose shot into the air with tho tail downward; but even when fifty feet from the ground it appeared as though it would be righted. Then it seemed to collapse and burst into flames as soon as it touched tho ground. It is reported that the Primo Minister, M. Tardieu, would have been aboard returning to the Naval Conferonce if he had not been delayed by a Cabinet meeting at Paris.