TWO WOMEN KILLED IN TERRIBLE CRASH

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 19, 15 September 1931, Page 4

TWO WOMEN KILLED IN TERRIBLE CRASH

plane in elames fckikPLEb AIR-WOMAN, WITH COMPANION KILLED * FAMbtrS woMan pilot One of the,, most draniatib air in- t cidents' o'f fecerii yearS o'cciirred about nine o'qlo.ck .ori the.night ,of June. 18 near Harpsfield,, ; Engiand, when. a machine crashed and two women were I burried to dedth. . .. •] Miss Sicele . Julia O'Brien, , daughter j of Sir Timothy O'Brieri; thb Irish baronet sportsman, was piloting the iriacpin.e. The' second yictinj was Mrs G'ordqiv Gallien, , of London. Nfiss I O'Brieri wds o'rie of the rilo^t famous glfwomen i« Gr.edt Britain: S'he had been in..giany. riying adventpres, arid, as the result of ,.a smasb in 1928, she had ,to have her left foot amputatcl above the ankle. Tiie crStsh crccurred iri.a field , close to tlis Barhet by-p'ass, abdut one mi*e> arid a-haif north ( of t the De Havilanci aerodro'me at^H'arp'sfleld. The tWo woirieri left Brough Aerodrome; Yoriishire, soori after lunch, and eafly in, the evening iandfed at tiie De Haviland aerodrome at Harpsfleld to renew their petrol supply. They then resumed the , jburney" to London,. and, Mad dnly heerl ih' the air abo'ut'a miriiite when ttie accident occurred. ' ' 1 A lad riairied ^ Williarri Smith, wlio lives Iri a baravari encariipriieiit close tb the fle.ld in which the aeroplane ieti, $aid: "I was sjariding near t.hei Glockhouse ,i)lling station when I saw th? maciiirie trying to turn round. it was gbirig against the wind arid flyirig fair'y iowv SUqiiehly there was a loiid ex1 plosiori, a_sheet of flame' appeared cn Llie bdck o'f the mtichine, which trirned Over arid over as it reached ihe grotm-d in a cdrkscrew fashion." , j , FJam.es 30 Feet High. Another eye-witness sajd : "When ahout 200 feet in ihe air the machine seem'ed to be iri difficulties, arid got into a spin. It nose-dived into the field adjoining the aerodrome and burst into llames. x dashed across the aerodrorpe i with others who had watched tfie ! machihe from the grbdnd, but wa eoulcl not approach within 20 yards of the llames, We could do nothing." According to some of the witnesscs the Hames were 30 feet high. .Mr Sayers, who also witnessed the accident and was one of the flrst to rusli to the spot, said the whole of the aeroplane was a mass of blazirg wreclcage alriiost instantly, and that .'t would have been impossible to rescue the women even had they been alive. , Nrimbers of Inotorists on the Barnet by-pass saw the machine crash, and, leaving their cars by tbe roadside, l'ushed to, the spot. The llames were so iiiterise, however, that they were clriven haclc several yards from the biazing wreclcage, arid, by the time the blaze subsided the bodies of the women were'hurned beyond recogriition.

Mr W. G. Grovestoclc, of Harpsfleld, stated that it was impossible to get anywhere riear the plarie to render assistance to the occupants, who* could. not be se'en through the blaze. There was, however, no sign of life from either. , ; , ! bifficuity ih Startlng. | At the inquest evidence as to the take-off from Hatfield was given by Arthur Potier, timelceeper and nightwatchman at the De Haviland Flyirig School. When he was pusliing the machine toward the petrol tarilc the pilot -said 'to him: "Don't lift too high, becadse ,1 airi rather heavy oh the nose." Potter said Miss, O'Brien aslced him if he could swing a propeller, as she could not'. He replied that he had riever, swung one, but eventually he got . tiie machine started. Miss O'BMen went a few yards, and then called to him: "Yoti will have tb come and help me. I can't turn this thing across there." Witness po"in,ted out that the spot which Miss O'Brien iridicated was not the one from wliich pilots usually toolc off, but Miss O'Brien appeared to be in a hurry. She began to.taxi, and went a consiL•erable distance in comparison witb what other pilots usualiy did before her. ynachine left the ground. "Miss O'Brieri left tbe ground about 18 inches or two feet," witness said, "then dropped again, toolc on a little more speed, and eventually got off tbe ground and climbecl against the wind I thought that the trees were sheltering the wind, hut when I saw that sha was above the trees I was satisfied that she had got off all right. .

Aeroplane Tested at Hufl. "A gamekeeper who saw her talceoff suddenly cried to me: 'Loolc, Arthur, she's down.' I looked where he pointed, and saw the machine spgming to the gropnd. • The aeroplane struck the ground with her nose and burst into llames immediately." ^ | Captairi Harry Albert Love, pilot in charge of the IIull Aero Gl.ub, said that in the morning Miss O'Brien and Mrs Gallien arrived by car a,t the club to call for the machine. Weather conditions were unfavourable, >so she hurig aboiit a bit. Later, conditions ] improyed, so she took the machine up to tesi it, and found' everything quite satisfatcory. "SYitnes^ said that Miss O'Brien, before leaving, aslced to have the rud-der-bar in Mrs Gallien's Seat adjusted so that Mrs feallien could worlc it. "I dare say," added witness, "that Miss O'Brien would find difficulty in getting the machine out of a spin because of lier artificial leg, and I tliinlc she -wapted the rudder-bar adjusted so that Mrs Gallien coulcl help her out of a spin." The deputy-cororier said that the rudder-bar of . ,the machine had been, adjhsted for .Mrs GcL'lhen. "She may have been piloting tiie machine at the time, or Miss. O'Brien may Kave been," he said.

A yerdict of accidental death was r.elurned, • .... , . ! IWIss O'Brleh's Prevlous Accident. Miss O'Brien "was one of the first women to lly across the Chahnel with a woman passen'ger, and one, of the few to hnld. a commercial B license. In 1927 she started her own air business, i'riririing her Moth as an air taxi. The fbUowing yeat: she accompanied Lady Heath on the first women's attempt at an altitude record in a light seaplane ,at Rochester, reaching a height of 13, 400ft— over two miles and d-iialf— a i-ecord for a light seaplane. •' Iri a flyirig accident at Mill Hill in Octoher,' 1928, when her aeroplane nose-dived to the ground on the fa.mqus Mote Mount golf course, Miss O'Brien was so seriously irijured that | ' her left leg was amputated above tbe ankle. After that crris.U Miss O'Brien said: "It waS worth it. Oue has tc> talce a rislc for anytiiing that is worth while. iri this life one has to he prepared to pay for everything." Miss O'Brien gloiied in the excitemcnt and perils of all her ' tricks that only expert aviators lcnow, and within a few. months of the accident at M^l ITill she won first prize at Blackpool for a demonstration,( flight, rolling, spirinirig, arid loopirig Ih qiiiclc succession.. . When Miss O'Brien. started to learn to lly she did not teil her parehts, for dear that tliey would be alarmed, and