DEATH ROLL MOUNTS IN AIR DISASTERS

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5288, 28 December 1946, Page 5

DEATH ROLL MOUNTS IN AIR DISASTERS

'( Press Assn.-

91. BE'LIEVED KILLED !' CRASHES IN BRAZIL AND CHINA

-Rec. 9.30 p.m.)

? SHANGHAI, Dec. 26. Fears grew to-night that Shanghai's disastrous Chrisimas Day fog had caused a fourth air transport crash, thereby raising the total casualties to 91, of which 62 people died in three crashes. Nineteen others were injured, In addition, a Chinese woman and three children were killed when one aircraft crashed into ;a farmhouse. Thirteen eommercial aircraft were caught in the fog. One, aided by radar, landed safely, while eight turned baek and landed where visihility was better. TSu> aircraft that crashed Were en Itoute from Chungking. They stopped lat Wuchang (on the opposite side of jihe Yangtse River from Hankow) and Itook olf again for Shanghai on the litre.gth of goori weather reports, jbut when they were half- way to ■Shanqrhai the fog descended so Ithickly that the pilots could not see. I Tbe first crash oecnrred at 5.45 p.m. In Christmas Day, the second at 7.45 |.m.. and th'a third at 0 p.m. I Captain J. M. Greenwood, who-'p family is en route to China from the lUnitt'd States, was killed while pilotIng "ma of the China National Avialion. Corpora tion's machines involved Ku tbe crashes. I T!ic first plane to crash, a Douglas ■irliner, hit a farmhouse 2*0 miles Kioi'th of Shanghai while trying to land in the fog. All the passengers were killed. One member of the ■armer's family was killed and four ■thers were injured. ■ The second crash occurred when a ■ransport plane from Chungking ■loughed into the runway, killing 10 ■ersons and injuring 12. I The third plane, in which 33 pas■enjitrs and three members of the ■rew were killed, crashed 20 miles Brest of Shanghai. 9 A message from Rio de Janeira Blirazil, says 20 passengers were 9killed and one injured when a ■transport plane of the Argentine ■Fama Line, flving frcm London to ■Buenos Aires, crashed near Rio de ■Janeiro. BSearch is being made for an air ■ner with 12 persons on board. which Biiii' sing near San Diego, California.