AIRPLANE WRECKED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 793, 14 October 1929, Page 16

AIRPLANE WRECKED

LANDING IN PLOUGHED FIELD PILOT’S SKILFUL MANOEUVRE (Special to THE SUN) CHRISTCHURCH, Sunday. Landing in a half-ploughed field, his engine having petered out, Captain Noel Vale, of the Canterbury Aero Club, could not prevent his airplane capsizing. He suffered nothing worse than a few cuts, but the machine was badly damaged. Captain Vale had been stunting, and had just come out of a loop when his engine stopped. Heading the plane for Barrington Park, he started to glide downward. The park, however, was occupied by numerous groups of people and children were playing in the open spaces. To have landed here meant risking the children’s lives. The pilot therefore turned sharply in the direction of an open field.. Coming down with the wind behind him he cleared telegraph wires and fences, ran a few yards on the turf, and then struck the ploughed part of the small section.

Spectators ran to the wreckage and found the pilot endeavouring to clear himself; although petrol was pouring from the tank there was no outbreak of fire.

Captain Vale is an experienced pilot and is on the Air Force Reserve. The machine, a D.H. Moth, which had only flown 150 hours, was that used by Captain J. C. Mercer, instructor to the Aero Club, ’When he flew to the North some time ago. Mr. Norman, a recently-qualified pilot of the Aero Club, was the first on the list to fly the Moth, but he deferred in favour of Captain Vale, who flew alone. The airplane was virtually broken in half just behind the engine. Captains Buckley and Burrell were quickly there to supervise salvage. Very soon men with hack-saws and other tools cut away the engine for removal intact for examination and inquiry to determine the cause of the failure.