THE INQUEST.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1920, Page 5

THE INQUEST.

THE MACHINE NOT FAULTY. ACCIDENT ATTRIBUTED TO WIND. BBHNITB CAUSE NOT USED. &u toquest concerning the disaster wa& hold last night, before the Coroner {Mr. T. A. B. Baily, S.IL). Evidence for the police waa led by Senior-Sergeant MwCrorie. The first witness was Vivian C. 'Walsh engineer, of Auckland, who stated that Ctptaia Russell hgd heen iu his employ for over six months, eogaged as an air pilot. He was an expert and a careful man. The machine was in thoroughly good order* and had made sixteen successful, flights with passengers during that day, and also an exhibition flight! The last Jtip was commenced shortly after four o'clock, and the occupants were Captain Russell, Mr. Clarke, and Miss Waraoek, Captain Russell did not *ay anything about the machine, and as fee m witness, knew it was iu perfect lite machine made the usual course, Hut wtea turning in to make a landing ithfc "tank" \1&& leaning over of the *«W»J increased, as if it had been struck iby ft gust of wind. The machine went iiato a *pin and continued thus till $, crashed.. At one period it seemed as if the »achfoe was going to straighten TOt,, sdu*. it «£id not do so. When the Became started to spin it was about two, tanvdred feet op, the usual height *h,icfc iad been observed at this point when tfescejtding'. An «xamin».tiou of the machine immediately after the accident showed that tt» fwdder and elevator controls were iatact,. as far as the outside parts were concstned. Join Maxwell WaTnock (brother of me ol the decease?) said he arrived on 61m »KMU)d just as the machine was lesi\ ng. He was; told his sister was a passenger. He had had some years' perioral experience as a pilot. The machine took off all right, and behaved normally till turning into the wind to land, when it went into a spin. As he was not actually looking et the machine at the time he did not know the ca.Uße of the spin. Personally, he believed the machine was nil right, and had seen the same thinjr happen on numerous occasions to good machines. Other evidence was given bv Everard R. Gilmour and Constable Hadler. The finding was that the accident, appeared to have been due to some unforeseen occurrence. The Coroner remarked that the machine bad been in good order and had been successfully used in flights during the day.. ' ; The Coroner added a rider extending ' his sympathy to the relatives of the j deceased. Such occurrences, ho said,' happened occasionally, and he remarked that this was the second time he had held an inquest on a crash, there having been one at Christchurch two yea re ago dun to a break in the wires'of a machine.