N.Z’S AIR FATALITIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 845, 13 December 1929, Page 1

N.Z’S AIR FATALITIES

CRASHES NEARLY ALWAYS INEXPLICABLE TASMAN SEA DISASTER By the configuration of the country, New Zealand presents hazards for the flyer in the more remote districts. Yet, in the record of fatal airplane crashes in the Dominion, not one accident can be applied to causes from geographical disadvantages. Without exception, the accidents in the Dominion have taken place in the most inexplicable manner. Leo and Vivian W&isli, the brothers ■who pioneered aviation in New Zealand, made the first flight in the history of the country in 1910. The next year, Vivian Walsh made the first flight in Auckland. The first fatal smash did not take place until eight years after flyigg was taken up in New Zealand. The Canterbury Aviation Company had been formed in 1917 and, the next year, its instructor. Captain Hill, was killed in “stunting” an airplane above Riccarton racecourse. Nearly eight years ago. the worst crash in New Zealand took place at New Plymouth. Captain Russel was flying a machine above the town with the Mayor of New Plymouth. Mr. Clark, and a woman as passengers, when, to the horror of many eye-wit-nesses, the airplane crashed. All three were killed. A few years Christchurch was the scene of a smash in which a pilot was killed and then came the tragic attempt of Captain Hood and Lieutenant Moncrieff, the New Zealanders, to fly the plane Aotearoa from Australia to the Dominion. That was in January last year. It is generally conceded that the plane crashed very near the New Zealand coast, so the disaster is numbered among the Dominion's air tragedies. Auckland’s first smash was before the war. “Wizard” Stone crashed in an early ihodel plane in a field at Grey Lynn, and the pilot was badly hurt. Many crashes have taken place without serious result and perhaps the most remarkable of these was this year when Captain Burrell effected a safe landing in a fog on a narrow beach in the Marlborough Sounds. The feat was attended by the greatest luck. The Walsh brothers themselves had several minor mishaps. The only fatality attached to their activities was when a mechanic was killed when he was struck by a propeller.