City Doctor Raced North by Airplane

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 830, 26 November 1929, Page 1

City Doctor Raced North by Airplane

URGENT CALL RECEIVED

VERSATILITY OF AIRCRAFT

The uses of the airplane in the peaceful pursuits of lifa cover a field that is amazingly broad, yet ever widening. Receiving an urgent call to attend a aerious eaaa of aickneaa in Oargaville, Dr. Kanneth Mackenzie engaged one ef the Auckland Aero Club’s D.H. Moth machines this morning and left Immediately for the North. It is another illustration of the versatility of the airplane and it marks more definitely its debut into a comparatively new sphere in New Zealand. that of protecting public health and rendering relief to the suffering. Pew details concerning Dr. Mackenzie's sudden departure are yet known, but the event alone is sufllclent to show the possibilities of this modern form of transport in assisting those in outlying districts situated mauy hours from medical aid. A few minutes after 11 o'clock this morning the plane piloted by Lieutenant R. D. Allan, the Aero Club’s new instructor, with one of Auckland's leading medical practitioners. Dr. Mackenzie, as passenger, raced over the Mangere airdrome, left the ground, climbed quickly, and soon disappeared in the low-lying clouds of the morning. CONDITIONS NOT IDEAL Although the air was comparatively still the conditions were not ideal for hying. But it was a case for urgency, and the plane headed away at a fast speed, and was expected to arrive at Dargaville after about an hour's flying. ■Mr. L. W. Swan, secretary to the Aero Club, put a telephone call through, and all arrangements were made for the landing field. This is the first occasion on which the Auckland Aero Club has been favoured with the opportunity of supplying a machine to rush assistance to the sick or injured, although on previous occasions it has been t illed upon to make hurried trips for business men and others. Some time ago a-i Auckland plane was acquired for the purpose of taking a doctor to 'Vaiheke Island so that he might attend to an injured man. HUGE AMBULANCES Abroad, the airplane has been used an ambulance and in carrying Patients from remote localities to a Point where they can receive proper hospital care aud has earned much Praise, especially in Australia, where in many cases the airplane is the ouly means of transport over the large a. - eas of waste. America has her huge ambulance planes with nurses aboard, and it has been announced that within the last seven years 3,969 wounded and sick men have been transported to hospitals by airplane in Morocco over an distance of about 60 miles. In the evacuation of these 3,969 men there were only two fatal accidents, though there were a few forced landings and minor mishaps.

An example of the utilisation of the airplane for civilian medical relief is shown by the work of the Swedish Red Cross, which has operated several Planes for the last five years to carry medicine and doctors to outlying points and to bring to city hospitals, country patients requiring immediate attention of a sort that the village Physician cannot supply. Small as New Zealand is. the time is bound to arrive, and probably in the bear future when the larger hospitals *lll have their ambulance planes.