FOURTEEN LIVES LOST

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 136, 6 December 1938, Page 12

FOURTEEN LIVES LOST

A TRAGIC CRASH

FIRE AND EXPLOSION

(By Air Malt, from "The Post's" London Representative.)

LONDON, November 7.

Fourteen lives were lost when a Jersey Airways airliner crashed a minute after taking off from the Jersey Airport for Southampton. It bounced along a tomato field for a few yards, killed a labourer, and burst into flames. Nobody escaped. Among those killed was a 13-month-old baby girl.. There was a terrible explosion, and {debris was hurled over an area an i acre in extent. So far the cause of I the crash is unknown, but there is a theory that it was associated with the aeroplane's blind-flying instruments. The airliner's four engines were 50 yards apart. Struts and instruments, broken seats, and wires were interlaced with women's jumpers and underclothes, men's suits, and 'pieces of suitcases blown open in the explosion. Lying on the banked hedge of the lane which divides the turnip and tomato fields were torn fashion books, a child's rattle, a doll, a woolly ball, a shoe, and a sock. . On another hedge was a box of ruined cigars. The airliner's wheels were 200 yards from the rest of the debris. The farm labourer killed, Le Cornu, and another man, Mr. Peter Lesaux,: were at work in the field when the machine crashed. Both threw, themselves to the ground, but Le Cornu was too late. He was carried 40 yards and hurled into a turnip field with the bodies of .four other adults and the baby. His coat was torn from him and fell ten yards further on. Two people had arri^d at the airport too late to claim seats they had booked. One of them, Mr. Louis Morris, a cinema* proprietor, was an eyewitness of the crash. | EYE-WITNESSES' STORIES. "I saw the airliner take off normally and circle round. Then it was lost in the mist," he said. "Suddenly, it came out of the mist, apparently attempting to land. It was very low, and I realised she must crash. She struck the ground, bounced, struck again, and burst into flames. My chauffeur and I ran over, but we could do j nothing. Nor could the firemen and ambulance men, who arrived at the! same time. I heard the petrol tanks i explode and saw bodies hurled out of j the flames." ' ! Among those killed were Captain i and Mrs. W. D. Swan, with their J child. They were on their way to j India. At the subsequent inquest Mrs. Swan's father, Major Beazley, was called to identify his daughter and the baby. Peter Lesaux made a statement, in which he said: "I was with my foreman, Le Cornu (one of those killed) n.owing the field. During the morning I happened to look up, and I saw an aeroplane coming towards me. It was j flying so low that 1 threw myself to the ground, but the plane struck him on the forehead. I looked up again, (and saw the plane strike the edge of the field. I looked for Le Cornu, but he was missing. I could not get very close to the plane. It was a mass of flames." Another witness. Mr. Hulin, was working on his farm nearby when the crash occurred. "The first body I found was drenched in petrol," he said, "and was from head to foot aflame. The boy and I tried to smother the flames with our caps. The little baby," he continued with difficulty, "was the most pathetic of all." The inquest <wa& .acgowraed.