THRILLING RESCUE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 55, 2 September 1943, Page 6

THRILLING RESCUE

NEW ZEALAND AIRMEN

Early in June there appeared in a Royal New Zealand Air. Force casualty list the names of Sergeant Carl W. Collins, of Auckland, and.Flying Officer Harold. J. Evans, of Wellington, as "slightly injured on active service." Letters received recently from Flying Officer Evans give the story of the accident which caused their injuries, and of the- courageous rescue of three airmen by other members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

The occupants of the plane were Flying Officer Evans (navigator), Sergeant Collins (pilot), and a third au> man who was a passenger for the particular flight. When the plane was halfway down the runway and about to take off, it swerved sharply to the right, and crashed into and through a "wireless dispersal hut," and on into an ammunition store. Both engines of the plane immediately caught fire, and the ammunition began to' explode. In the midst of this inferno, which was getting rapidly worse, other airmen at once, went to the rescue, and got out Collins and the passenger, not noticing in the excitement of the moment that the latter was not the navigator.- As soon as this was realised, one of them returned, and extricated Evans, who was unconscious. Not one of the occupants of the plane was burned, the only injuries they received being those caused by the crash. Both Collins and Evans received slight spinal fractures, from which they are making a good recovery. The passenger was not seriously injured..: The plane itself was completely burned out. The- names of the two New Zealand airmen who effected the rescues were Phillips and Reed. It has been ascertained that the. latter is Pilot Officer Graeme Reed, whose next-of-kin is Mrs. F. Reed, of }3 Royal Terrace, Auckland, and it was he who returned to extricate Evans. .