AEROPLANE CRASH AT PAPANUI.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3012, 18 March 1926, Page 3

AEROPLANE CRASH AT PAPANUI.

OFFICER AND PASSENGER

KILLED,

ANOTHER OFFICER GRAVELY INJURED.

Christchurch, March 17,

An officer of the Territorial Air Force and an aerodrome employee were killed, and another officer was badly injured, in an aeroplane crash at Papanui at 5.30 to-night. The names are— Killed: Captain P. J. Horrell; T. L. Reid. Badly Injured: Lieutenant P. A. Turner. Captain Horrell and Lieut. Turner belonged to a group of Air Force officers undergoing a refresher course at the Wigram Aerodrome. Reid, who was formerly a jockey, was a passenger in the machine with the officers. Captain Horrell was killed instantly, and Reid died on the way to the hospital. Lieut. Turner’s injuries are very grave, but he is considered to have a fighting chance of recovery. The aeroplane crashed to earth in a garden surrounding the Methodist Orphanage, falling in a rose garden, twelve yards from a room in which 60 children were sitting down to their evening meal. By great good fortune not a single inmate of the orphanage was out-of-doors. It is a quiet suburban neighbourhood, and very few people saw the crash. CAUSE OF MISHAP. All eye-witnesses agree that the machine was flying low, and was stunting. The immediate cause of the ci’ash was an unsuccessful attempt to loop the loop, a manoeuvre the pilot had successfully accomplished several times before. The machine dived at a terrific speed, burying its nose deep in the ground. Captain Horrell was dead when lifted from the wreck of the aeroplane. His head was fearfully crushed, and both his legs were broken. Reid also had terrible head injuries. Lieut. Turner suffered a broken left arm, broken lower jaw, and severe facial lacerations and general, shock.