TRAGIC FLIGHT

Hokitika Guardian, 8 February 1930, Page 2

TRAGIC FLIGHT

BID FOR LONG DISTANCE RECORD

CRASH IN THE T CXI SAN HILLS

LONDON, December 23

Tile giant R.A.F. research monoplane set out ; at 8 a.m. on Tuesday from Cramvell aerodrome in an attempt to make a non-stop flight to Cape Town, a distance of 6000 miles, and thus break the present world nonstop long distance record of 4912 miles held by France. Yesterday came the sad news of the death of the two airmen in the mountains of Tunis. There was a Ibrilliant moon (writes Major C. C. Turner, of the “Daily Telegraph”) when the great machine, its wings filled with its petrol tanks, was hauled out of its shed. At five o’clock there was no glimmer of dawn, but the engine was run up and the aeroplane slowly taxied the two miles to the starting point. There was an absence of fuss and emotional leave-taking. Air-Commodore Hailaham, Air-Commodore Longmore ( the new Commandant of the Cadet College), a few officers of the station, and one or two women were present. A cheery “Good luck!” and the smiling, confident-looking pilots climbed into the machine. Flight-Lieut. Jenkins, whose suit-case was already on board, was carrying a toothbrush and a tube or paste. Both he and the Squadron Leader Jones Williams—a biggish, man—were clad in fur collared brown suede padded suits. , They included in tneir equipment .solar topees, and each had a sporting gun, a revolver, and a small hatchet. They ; took with .them themos flasks with coffee, sandwiches, apples, bread, andif'iron” rations sufficient altogether for three weeks.

, THE; TAKE-OFF. A close view of the take-off was necessary to realise the tremendous forces in operation. The machine and its engine, opened full out, got underway slowly, its tail nevertheless lifting off the runway. Then it rapidly accelerated, thundering along and literally shaking the ground. There we:a few seconds of painful suspense, for a burst tyre of any structural defect would then have meant disaster. At increasing distance the impression of weight and power diminished, and one saw the wheels leave the ground, like those of a light aeroplane. This was at eight o’clock. The take-off alone manifested a mechanical triumph, for none who saw could have failed to realise there;would have been a strong probability of., a, tyre bursting or an axle firing jin f.'tiie case of a.. load of H tons borne on only two wheels and attained a speed bn the ground of more than seventy-, miles an hour. The last news from jfche monoplane itself was received at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, when the airmen were fifty miles off the north-west coast of Sardinia.

CRASH IN THE MOUNTAINS. The monojptone crashed; im the 'mountainous district of Zaghouati, south of Tunis. It is believed to have struck a hill while the pilot was seeking a landing-place during a violent storm. The bodies of Squadron-Leader JonesWj Ilia ms and Flight-Lieut. Jenkins vere found hv Arabs a short distance from the wreckage of the machine. I his is taken to indicate that the airmen jumped from the monoplane as it neared the ground: The Arabs immediately reported to the authorities, and the French Administrator of the district sent out a search party, but bad weather and the mountainous*'nature of the country made the search so difficult that it was till after dark that the machine was found. the dead airmen.

Squadron-Leader- Jones-Williams was 31 years of age, and had had a distinguished hying .careed. He was only 18 when he first went to France with the Royal Air Force. He brought down several German aeroplanes and was awarded the Military Cross and bar, and 4 also the French Croix de Guerre. He - received the post-war General Service Medal, for his services as A.D.C. to Air-Marshal. Sir John Salmond during military operations in India and . Iraq. He afterwards became A.D.C. to Sir Philip Sassoon, Under-Secretary for Air in the late Government, with whom he flew to cnice for the Schneider Trophy race in 1927. He was educated at Haileybury and' Sandhurst.

Flight-Lieut. N. H. Jenkins, 0.8. E., D.F.C., D.S.M., was a native of Southampton Joining the Royal Navy Air Service ns a mechanic in 1915 he became an observer in the same service in 1917, with the rank of sub-lieut. He was wounded in June 1918 after he had become a lieutenant in the Royal A*r horce. He qualified as a pilot in 1919, was promoted flight-lieutenant in 1922, and was granted a permanent commission in 1923. Latterly he was serving with No. 22 Bombing Squadron. Martlesham Health, as a test pilot. His military decorations were awarded for valuable services in Flanders and on submarine patrol in Homo waters.