INQUEST HELD

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 221, 18 August 1937, Page 2

INQUEST HELD

THE STRATFORD AIR CRASH. EVIDENCE TENDERED. Per Press Association. NEW PLYMOUTH, Aug. IS. The inquest into the death of Mr Philip Joseph Nathan, Wellington, who was killed at Pembroke Road, Stratford, on June 2, when the Wellington Aero Club’s Miles Hawk monoplane, piloted by Mr C. H. Dunford, Wellington, crashed during a foggy morning, was opened at Stratford this morning by Mr W. 11. Woodward, S.M.

Mr Dunford and Mr Nathan were flying from Wellington to Auckland anti had just turned back towards Hawera because of bad visibility when the ’plane struck a hillock in a farm 4J miles west of Stratford. Mr Nathan was killed instantly and Mr Dunford has only recently recovered sufficiently from his log injuries to give, evidence at the inquest. Mr Duniord, a clerk employed by Joseph Nathan a.nd Co.. "Wellington, said that the flying weather was good as far north as Waverley. after which the conditions became bumpy and the northerly wind was increasing. He tried to follow tho railway lines from Eltham, but found it was impossible owing to the bad visibility. “I made up my mind to turn back as the flying conditions appeared to me to be no better than those I had been passing through,” Mr Dunford stated. “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 strike the ground on the side of the hill. .The impetus caused the ’plane to rise over the hill,, hut it was then out of control, and I could not get it bock under control before it crashed very shortly afterwards.”

A verdict was returned in accordance with tho medical and other evidence, the medical evidence being that death was due to multiple severe injuries as the result of a 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.