FATAL PLANE CRASH

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 182, 19 August 1937, Page 9

FATAL PLANE CRASH

Terrific Bump Scnt Machine Into Dive STRATFORD TRAGEDY (Bt Telegraph— Press Aaaociation.I . NEW PLYMOETH, Last Night. 5 The inquest into the death of Philip | Joseph Nathan, of Wellington, ivho I was ldlled at Pembroke road, Stratford, l on June 2, wlien the Wellington Aero :,; Glub's Miles-Hawlc monoplane, .piloted , by Mr. 0. H. Dunford, of Wellington, crashed during a foggy morning, was i opened at Stratford- this morning by Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M. Messrs. Dunford * and Nathan "were flying from Wellington to Auckland and had just turned back towards , Hawera beeause of bad visibility, when • the plane struclc a hillock in a farm 4i miles west of. Stratford. Mr. Nathan was killed instantly, and Mr. Dunford has only recently recovered sufficiently from the leg injuries he suffered to give evidence at the inquest. Mr. Dunford, a clerk employed by Joseph Nathan & Co., Wellington, said that the flying weather was good as far north as "Waverley, aftei whieli conditions became bumpy and the northerly wind was increasing. He tried to follow the railway lines from Eltham, but found that it was impossible owing to bad visibility. "i made up my mind to turn back," he added, "as flying conditions appeared to me to be no better than I had been passing through. "I turned the plane to the right, and just as I was turning I received a terrific air bump which affected my right wing. This wing was already banked with the turn of the plane, and the bump caused'the right wing to drop lower. This forced the 'speed to increase, and the nose of. the plane dropped. I gently attempted to correct the turn and -dive, but could not do so, and I felt the plane strlke the ground on the side of a hill. The impetus caused the plane to rise over the hill, but it was then out of control,

and I could not get it back under control before it crashed very shortly af terwards.' ' A verdict was returned in accordance with the medical and other evidence, the medical evidence being that death was due to multiple severe injuries as the result of tho crash. The coroner stated that his verdict would not go beyond his duty at a coronial inquiry, which was to establish the time and place of death. (