FAST PLANE CRASHES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 822, 16 November 1929, Page 1

FAST PLANE CRASHES

TAKE-OFF ACCIDENT AT BLENHEIM CAPTAIN BUCKLEY ESCAPES Prtst Association BLENHEIM, Today Captain M. Buckley, officer commanding the Wigram airdrome, who called in at Blenheim yesterday morning to refuel on hia way to the pageant at Wellington, crashed his machine, a Gloster Grebe, when taking off from the Woodburn airdrome in continuation of his flight in the afternoon. After a short run the powerful airplane took the air. When a few feet up the pilot suddenly discovered a complete absence of control. The right wing dipped and touched the ground, the impact causing a violent counterswing over to the left side. A steady westerly blowing down the field tilted the right wing and the left wing struck the ground heavily, dragging the nose cf the machine down. One blade of the propeller was smashed clean off. The left wing crumpling, let the airplane down on its side, the engine gouging a hole in the ground. The machine then skidded some distance a*d pulled up in a badlv-wrecked condition. The pilot easily freed himself from the safety belt and jumped to the ground uninjured. Captain Buckley estimates that the damage is 50 per cent It is the latest Grebe to arrive at Wigram and is only about a year old. Captain Buckley says the cause of the accident is inexplicable. Although the wind was heavy, it was not sufficient to cause trouble. He suspects something went radically wrong with the controls. The machine will be taken in a motor-lorry to Christchurch on Monday. Captain Burrell, immediately alter the crash, took off successfully for Wellington and an Avro Avian left just before accident.