“PUT ON LIFEBELTS!”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 694, 20 June 1929, Page 9

“PUT ON LIFEBELTS!”

DRAMATIC FIRST ORDER TO PASSENGERS AIR PILOT EXONERATED (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Reed. 9.10 a.m. LONDON, Wednesday. At the inquest on the seven victims of the disaster to the air liner City of Ottawa in the English Channel, Mr. Alan Fleming, of Sydney, said: “Ten minutes from land, the mechanic entered the saloon and ordered us to put on the lifebelts, which the passengers did not know how to inflate. “The mechanic said: ‘Don’t be frightened/ I looked out, but had no idea we were going down. If we had been warned at the outset, more people would have escaped. “The water rushed in immediately we struck the sea. Everyone was thrown forward. I don’t know how I escaped.” Pilot Braill gave evidence that when the air liner was 15 miles from the English coast, he suddenly heard a crack and felt a violent vibration. He realised that something serious was wrong, and decided immediately to try to return. He soon saw that he was unable to make the land, and wirelessed to Croydon. He decided to land as near as possible to the trawler. Pilot Braill, in answer to the coroner, said that even looking back on the event now he thought it would have been worse to try to go on. He was nearer England than France. He did not send more messages to the passengers, who did not know that he had decided to descend in the sea. He glided down to the water as slowly as possible. When he struck the water, he was thrown out 19 or 20 yards. A verdict of accidental death was returned. The coroner found that the machine was quite airworthy and that the pilot and the mechanic did all they could in the circumstances. FOUR BODIES RECOVERED

A British Official Wireless message says the four bodies recovered are those of Mr. L. T. Malcolm, of Hamilton, Canada; Mr. A. F. Smith, of Melbourne, Australia; Mr. Adolf Meister, a company director, of New York; and Mrs. Ickerson. Among the evidence it was stated that the machine did not actually nose-dive into the water. It dived down at considerable speed, and apparently it was the tail that struck the water.