THREE AIRMEN KILLED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 666, 18 May 1929, Page 9

THREE AIRMEN KILLED

STUNTER INCINERATED AFTER CRASH MECHANIC LEAPS TO DEATH (Australian and N.Z. Press Asso* i*i LONDON, FridaThere were two air crashes t<» which resulted in the death of tin airmen. Flying-Officer J. W. Bayes, flying a single-seater “Siskin” machine, wa s practising stunts for an acrobatic play when his airplane crashed. The airman was flying upside down w ithin 50ft of the ground. He had success fully carried out a flick and a loop and was doing a slow roll when the mach ine dropped like a stone. Tongues of flame immediately shot up for a hundred feet, enveloping th' machine. The airman was incinc ated before the horrified spectators a> the airdrome were able to reach the wreckage. The second disaster occurred at Weybridge. Flight-Lieutenant Schole field and a mechanic named Sherrati were flying a Vickers “Vanguard machine, -which crashed in unusual circumstances. Eye-witnesses stated that when th< airplane was flying low' a terrific explosion took place in the petrol tank. It scattered parts of the machine, some of which descended hundreds of yard apart. Sherratt, who appeared as a tin.' figure against the sky, leapt out of the machine, but he struck the ground with such force as to be almost completely buried. The airplane caught fire, the fierce heat preventing all attempts to reach Lieutenant Scholefield’s body. Flight-Lieutenant Scholefield was among the best-known of the British pilots and racers of airplanes.