PLANE SMASH

Hokitika Guardian, 19 September 1932, Page 5

PLANE SMASH

TRIPLE FATALITY LEADING AVIATORS KILLED. (Australian Press Association.) (Received + his day at 9.25 a.m) SYDNEY, iSeptember 18. One of the worst aeroplane accidents occurred to-day at 1.30 on the North Coast in the vicinity of Bungalow and Syronbay, three leading aviators being killed when a “Buss Moth” jihadiino crashed a thousand feet on; to the mountainside. The victims were Leslie Holden, Doctor George 11. Hamilton, and Ralph Virtue, whose bodies were mutilated. The aeroplane left Sydney for Brisbane at 9 .a.m. and encountered bad weather right up the coast, it being misty, squally and generally cloudy.

Holden and Hamilton were in thle air liner Canberra which found the lost Southern Cross with Kingsford Smith, 0. T. P. TJlm and party in North-Western Australia a few years ago. Holden .was afterwards associated with an aerial party which searched 'for Andersott ftiid Hitchcock who perished in Central Australia while locking for the Southern Cross. Hamilton was an export aerial photographer, and Virtue am experienced pilot employed by the New England Airways which conduct® aerial passengers ruid a mail service between Sydney, Lismore, and Brisbane.

Holden and Hamilton recently returned from New Guinea where they established aerial services to the goldfields. The pair had only Arrived in Sydney a week ago by the Machoui and, intended returning. Details of the crash indicate that the pilot who. must have teen “flying blind” owing to the bad weather, emerged from the clouds and mist, and passed over a ridge five miles beyond Bangaton and apparently struck a tree, and a wing fell off. A desperate attempt was made to right the machine which somersaulted into the valley hundreds of feet below and Was w recited. '■

Captain Holden was a. war time pitot, and had a notable record. (Since he took up civil aviation he had the reputation of being one. of the most skilled pilots in Australia, and never had been forded to make a landing in the strict sense of the term. He leaves a widow and threie children. Doctor Hamilton is a leading Sydney medical practitioner, but latterly had devoted considerable time and money to aviation. He also leaves a widow aild throe children*

EYE-WITNESSES* EVIDENCE. RESIDENTS HEAR EXPLOSION, IWMOM (Received thin dn.v af, 11.10 n.m.l SYDNEY, September 19. Eye-witnesses state the laeroplane appeared to be in trouble and the pilot obviously intended to land. Hearing an explosion, local people ran out in time to see a wing break from the machine.

Jules Moxon, an aviator, who was on the scVffie soon after the accident, said he thought the fin«>l dive was caused by the breaking of the left wing spar.

Charles Langley saw the plane battling through blinding rain lashed by a strong southerly. “It was fljiing very low, and it seemed as if the pilot was trying to land. When the machine was nearing tl*e ground, it suddenly shot into the air again, almost at right angles. Then the left wing came off, aind the plane nose dived, spinning round twice, before it crashed, the wreckage whirling over a hundred yards round the scene of the smash.” Pilot Virtue was crushed in the twisted steelwork of the control seat, while' in the wrecked fuselage were Holden and Hamilton. Every hone in their bodies were broken and their heads were fractured in several places. They were extricated, with considerable difficulty. A watch on Virtue’s wrist had stopped at 1.25. That was the time the residents heard the explosion.