AIR FORCE DISASTER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 21 January 1931, Page 5

AIR FORCE DISASTER

BOMBING ’PLANE CRASHES (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, 19th January. Before crashing on the headquarters shed at Worthy Down aerodrome, Winchester, which was between the plant and the landing ground, the Vickers Virginia narrowly missed a canteen in which 200 Air Force men were lunchlng. Eye-witnesses say that it was travelling well at a height of 5000 ft and descended to 500 ft, preparatory to landing. It suddenly side-slipped. The pilot vainly strove to adjust the controls, but the huge machine, with engines roaring, burst in on Bagle End shed, a long low brick building, in which clerks and orderlies were working. The aeroplane broke amidships like a child’s toy, just behind the wireless man’s feet, shattering ten feet of wall into its component bricks, which strewed the ground and amid a tangle of twisted metal and ripped canvas. , It was a miracle that there was no outburst of flame, because the impact split one of the two tanks, combined containing 200 gallons of petrol. The ’plane came to rest in a normal position. The tail was almost intact and the left wing overhanging the roof. The right wing was crumpled underneath. Those at lunch rushed out of the canteen and extricated the airmen from the wreckage, under which were the pilots, one dead and one dying, still in the cockpits.