TRAGIC ADVERTISEMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 319, 2 April 1928, Page 9

TRAGIC ADVERTISEMENT

BOY LED BY PLANE FILM PUBLICITY SCHEME WOMAN PILOT MISLED By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright. LONDON, Saturday. A remarkable story of a tragic advertising venture was told at the inquest concerning the death of the boy victim of the accident at Stalybridge, Cheshire, on March 26. The lad was killed by an airplane which descended in a crowded field. Winifred Brown, the pilot, said she did not know the flight was an advertising scheme, although she knew it was an urgent matter. She was surprised when she arrived above the landing field to see the crowd below. She never doubted the assurance of her passenger, William Browning, that the field was suitable for a landing. When the plane reached the ground witness realised that she could not stop it before a collision with the crowd. She adopted the only possible course and tried to take off again, but the machine struck the wall. DELUDING THE PUBLIC The passenger Browning, a film salesman, stated that the object of the flight was to secure publicity for a film to be shown at Stalybridge. It was decided to deliver it on Sunday so that a crowd would collect, but there was nothing in the film-box. The Coroner: Then you were deluding the public. Browning: Yes. We did not consider it would be safe to carry a celluloid film in the airplane. He added that he saw 2,000 people in the field. He was a certificated pilot and had previously chosen the landing field and thought it suitable. Miss Brown knew nothing about the scheme. The coroner said he could exonerate Miss Brown because she had been told a deliberate lie, namely, that the journey was urgent, whereas there was no film in the box. It was difficult to understand Browning’s qualific-a tions to choose the landing ground. His flying experience was merely that of a novice. A verdict of death by misadventure was returned. —A. and N.Z.