MAIL AIRPLANE WRECK

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 943, 9 April 1930, Page 9

MAIL AIRPLANE WRECK

TWO GERMANS KILLED IN SURREY CRASH LANDING IN DARKNESS United P.A.-—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, Monday. Further details are now available of the disaster to the German airplane in Surrey early this morning. The machine had left Croydon for Berlin with mails, but was returning owing to her wireless having failed. The pilot, Herr Wessel, who had With him as mechanic and wireless operator Herr Connert, tried to find a landing place in the darkness by firing Verey lights. The Junker liner crashed at 4 a.m. m a field in Caterham Valley used for “joy flights” at week-ends. Instantly the machine was enveloped in flames. An explosion followed and the airplane was blown into so many pieces that they were scattered ever an area of 100yds. The two men on board were dreadfully injured and died. The pilot’s body bore severe burns, but the mechanic is assumed to have met his death by jumping from the machine. An official of the Air Ministry reached the scene at an eariy hour. The cause of the crash is not yet known and it is doubtful if it can be ascertained. Catherham Valley has a bad name and is avoided by English air pilots in bad weather. Three disasters have occurred the2 - e entailing serious loss of life. Pilots who descend to avoid mists become trapped among the hills and fly blindly into their sloping sides. MACHINES COLLIDE TWO KILLED AT ATHENS Reed. 12.50 p.m. ATHENS, Tuesday. Colliding shortly after taking off, two military airplanes crashed and a pilot and two observers in one machine were killed. The other pilot was seriously injured.