’PLANE IN SEA.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 311, 17 December 1936, Page 5

’PLANE IN SEA.

Crew Of Lord Sempil’s ’Plane Share Blame. i Press Association —Copyright. Received Noon. Melbourne, To-day. The Air Accidents Investigation Committee blames both the crew oi. the machine and the Royal Australian Air Force wireless operator .at Darwin for the loss of Lord Sempil’s plane, Croydon Mohospar, between Darwin and Koepang on October 7. . The committee criticised the pilot and wireless, operator of the ’plane for using the radio bearings from Darwin, because they knew they were subject to large errors during the dark hours and about an hour before and after sunrise and sunset. In allocating the blame, the committee charges the crew with negligence in making .their arrangements before leaving Darwin, in that they took no steps to correct the error of about ten degrees which they knew their compass had shown on the flight to Australia.

Because the operators at Darwin knew the limitations of their apparatus, they should not have agreed to give bearings when they did. Crocombe, commenting on the investigation and the committee’s findings, told the Australian Asociated Press that the crew must accept the finding as final. “We naturally have our own thoughts, having sat on the middle of the ocean so long,” he said, “and we regret- the unwarranted aspersions of a fine navigator like Wodd. The Darwin station might as well pack up if its bearings are sub: ject to unreliability. The committee ignores the fact that we were unaware of the compass error. It was troublesome earlier, but there was no justification for allowing for error when we left Darwin. The bearings from Darwin should have shown us the error. Instead, it indicated that our assumptions were correct.”

Wood commented to an interviwer: “It is an impossible verdict. The Darwin operator gave me the clearest assurance that the bearings were exact.”