AIR TRAGEDY in Queensland Ranges

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 38, 1 March 1937, Page 7

AIR TRAGEDY in Queensland Ranges

— Press Assn.— Copyright.)

. FOUR DEAD Jwo Survivors Found Writing Last Messages WEEK-OLD ACCIDENT

(By Telegrapfa-

(Eeeeived 1, 10.55 a.m.) BRISBANE, March 1. The Stinson airliner which had been missing since Februar.y 19 has been found in the Macpherson Range, about 50 miles west of Brisbane. Two passengers are alive. They are Mr. J. Binstead, oi Manly, and Mr. J. Proud, of Sydney. The former is unhurt. The rest of the six are dead. The survivors are apparently in a bad way from eshaustion. The airliner was a blackened, burnt -wreck. The plane crashed on the afternoon of Feoruary 19 and burst into fiames. The two pilots, Messrs Roydon and Shepherd, and two passengers, Messrs Graham and Fountain, were kiiled instantly and mcinerated in the blazing inachine. Mr Westray eseaped injury and set out for help; his body .was round a mile from the plane at the ioot «f a cliff over - which he hao evidently fallen. Mi Bernard O'Eexlly, a guest-house propnetor, who foand the wrecked pmne, is leading a contingent of expert bushmen to the spot. Before returning for help he made tea for the survivors . and left with them a small quantity of food. Mr 0 'Reilly deseribed how, f ollowing & conviction that the plane had gone 110 farther than the MacPherson Eange, . he searched on Saturday afternoon and Sunday through exceptionally rocky eountry. Be had sighted a burnt patch on Lamington Platea, some miles away, and was making towards it, when he heard a Coo-ee acrosjs a gorge. Further eries guided him to the spot, -where he saw the wreckage of the plane and two survivors. One man was lying on the ground and the othej sitting up. They had been. ecratehing last messages with a pocketknife on pieces of metal. Mr 0 'Reilly eaid that the men Jiad iio food, but they had been able to get water from a creek about a mile away. They had no idea where they were and considered their only chance was to wait untii found. The tattered state of their clothing and their burns showed that they had struggied from the plane alter it crashed. They stated that Mr Westray had insisted on going for help and that the others had been incinerated. Before returning for the relief party Mr O'Reilly followed Mr Westray'® traeks and found his body. Thirty members of the relief party, sncluding a doctOr, anticipate having to carry Messrs Binstead and Proud 12 • miles through scrub and, in doing ihis i will have to descend 3000 feet, i The Stinson was engaged on ihe Brisbane-Sydney service. She carried aeven people, consisting of four pasttngers, Messrs Graham, Fountain, Barnett, Westray, and Proud, and two pilots, Messrs Shepherd and Boyd. Mr Binstead, who is alive, was travelliug Mr Barnett, beeause his wife was nervous of air travel and he did not want her to know he was making the trip.