ERROR OF JUDGMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 June 1938, Page 9

ERROR OF JUDGMENT

FINDING ON RECENT AIR CRASH. HAWKE'S BAY FATALITY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A finding that the pilot committed an error of judgment has been returned by the board of inquiry which investigated the recent fatal air accident at Crownthorpe Settlement, Hawke’s Bay, in which the pilot, Miss N. Arnott, and passenger, Mr R. B. Arnott, were killed. The danger of flying into clouds is emphasised by the board, whose report was released by the Minister in Charge of Aviation, the Hon. F. Jones, yesterday. The statement was as follows:-— “The board finds that while flying in a cloud the pilot lost stability and control, a condition which is likely to develop when the pilot has had no specialised training in blind flying and where cloud is sufficiently dense and extensive to obliterate effective observation. A dive is one of the results arising from this lack of control, and recovery from it necessitates (inter alia) careful use of the elevator control. “In the view of the board, the pilot erred in her judgment in entering instead of avoiding the cloud referred to and finds the effective cause of the accident to be that in attempting to recover from the resultant power dive •the pilot used the elevator control so harshly as to subject the main planes to such exceptional strain that portion of the starboard main plane structure was damaged, culminating in complete failure of the aircraft and its crash to earth.

“Arising out of this finding the board recommends that aero clubs be communicated with and the dangers associated with flying into clouds be reiterated and stressed."