Marlborough Plane Blown Over Cliff And Destroyed

Grey River Argus, 1 April 1948, Page 4

Marlborough Plane Blown Over Cliff And Destroyed

PA BLENHEIM, March 31. ■ Torn from its moorings during the gale at the week-end, the Marlborough Aero Club’s new three-pas-senger Fox Moth aeroplane was blown over a cliff at the Bluff sheep station and so severely damaged that it is doubtful if it can be repaired, •• The Bluff homestead is one of the most isolated in Marlborough’s mountainous hinterland, and news oi. the misfortune was received only _ last night after Mrs Roberts, wife of the manager, reached a telephone _at Kekerangu after a 24-hours’ ride down the Clarence Valley. The plane had been picketed down on the landing ground near the homestead, awaiting the arrival ot parts from Canada to make small repairs, after it had been tipped on its nose through the seizing of its brakes in landing on March 7. Three halfinch ropes from each lower wing, and a wire from the tail were broken by a severe gust, and the plane was blown bodilv over fences and scrub. It finished up on a terrace 150 feet below the airfield, with the tail unit broken, all four wings crumpled, the petrol tank smashed and the fuselage and undercarriage damaged. The machine was insured for its full value, about £2500. The club will be most affected by the loss of revenue from passenger flying, for which the machine was purchased m an effort to make up the deficit on expenditure on instructional work.