BIG LINER CRASHES

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 1, 2 January 1936, Page 9

BIG LINER CRASHES

TWELVE MISSING

PILOT SOLE SURVIVOR

WRECKAGE FOUND AT SEA

Dulled Tress Association—Bjp Eleclrlo Tele-

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(Received January 2, 10 a.m.) LONDON, January 1.

The worst Imperial Airways disaster since fifteen were killed in the City of Liverpool in Belgium in 1933 occurred when the liner City of Khartoum was wrecked in the Mediterranean last evening. H.M.S. Brilliant picked up the pilot, Mr. V. Gorry Wilson. Imperial Airways issues the following list of passengers with reserve:— Captain R. Mason, Mr. A. J. Buckman, Mr. W. G. Wellstead, Mr. A. L. Garrett, Mr. Rastall, Mrs. A. F. Horsman, and Miss Eckford, all British; Mr. C. Luke, an American; and Signor Tartaglione, an Italian. Captain Mason and Mr. Garrett were en route to Australia, and the other passengers were booked for Egypt, Irak, or India.

The Brilliant towed the wreckage to Alexandria harbour after fruitlessly searching for other survivors. Wilson was found floating in a lifebelt. The wreckage of the machine was some distance away.

The Alexandria correspondent of ihe "Daily Express" says the machine was flying from Athens to Alexandria, and passed over Crete at midday. The waiting landing party at Alexandria sighted her at 5.35 p.m., then she vanished.

After leaving Crete the airliner wirelessed that it was winding in its aerial and preparing to land at Alexandria at 5.20 p.m. Nothing further was heard. The destroyer and Imperial Airways liner Hannibal were ordered out from Alexandria to search, arid the Brilliant picked up Wilson at 11.20 p.m. a mile from Alexandria harbour, and at 11.55 p.m. reported finding the airliner's wreckage.

Wilson was in the water for seven hours before he was picked up and was almost unconscious when he was rescued. He was too ill to discuss the crash, which occurred within five or ten minutes before the liner should have descended. It was just towards sunset. The evening was calm and there was a calm sea.

The missing members of the crew are the first engineer, Amor, ihe wireless operator, Baker, and ihe steward, Richardson.

Imperial Airways, London, states: •—"Both from the absence of wreckage and the report of the pilot there can be no doubt that the City of Khartoum sank. Sweeping operations are progressing to locate the wreck .with a view to the speediest possible salvage." When the wreckage of the City of Khartoum was located today under water after a night-long search, there seemed little doubt that Pilot Wilson was the sole survivor out of nine passengers and a crew of four. Imperial Airways state that as far as is known at present all mails were for Australia and New Zealand. Mails for other parts are safe as they were carried by a sister machine, which arrived at Alexandria last night. Imperial Airways state that Mr. Garrettis an Australian, but his address is unknown.

Wilson is identical with the pilot who, when driven out of his course, made an emergency landing in the Northern Territory with English mails during a storm over the Timor Sea in January last. STATEMENT BY PILOT. Imperial Airways-point out that since the last accident to one of their machines, their aircraft have flown (1,750,000 miles and carried 129,000 passengers. An Alexandria message states that the bodies of two of the passengers in the Khartoum were recovered.

Members of the rescuing crews say that Wilson was about at his last gasp when picked up. He said that all three engines stopped within three seconds, and then came the crash. Three passengers managed to struggle clear of the cabin, but disappeared.

These details were given with reserve.

No one is allowed to interview Wilson, who was taken aboard the hospital ship Maine.