Home-Made Airplane Crashes at Rotorua

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 952, 21 April 1930, Page 1

Home-Made Airplane Crashes at Rotorua

PILOT UNINJURED AIR PAGEANT SENSATION \ From Our Own Correspondent KOTORUA, Today. Overcome by cramp, which caused his foot to slip from the controls at a critical moment, the young aviator-mechanic, J. Allison, in his home-made airplane, crashed in some scrub just outside the aviation ground at Rotorua shortly before noon today. The pilot escaped unhurt, but the plane suffered damage. fJ’HE crash provided a sensation for the large crowd assembled to witness the air pageant at Rotorua this afternoon. Mr. Allison, in his home-made plane, flew from Whakalane this morning to participate in the fete. He appeared over the landing ground about 11.35 o'clock and circled round in an attempt to make the usual landing from the south end. Flying very low, the airman again circled and those in the crowd, feeling the flyer had mistaken the car area for the landing ground, held their breath. Apparently realising his mistake, the pilot swerved sharply and, still low, headed over the scrub. From the north he appeared to be perilously near the scrub and seemed to be heading for the fence at the southwest corner. Then he swerved, but too late to avoid the scrub. He hit some branches and the nose of the plane was buried in the ground. The crowd rushed madly from halt a mile away and as the pilot was removed from the wreckage unhurt, he was cheered by the spectators and ■was shouldered up the field amid further cheers.

Interviewed, the pilot said he was overcome by cramp at a critical moment and his foot slipped off the controls, upsetting his calculations for landing. He was only a few feet from Ihe landing-ground when he crashed.

The landing-wheels of the plane (vere buckled, the stays strained and |he propeller was splintered.