AIR LINER CRASH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 November 1938, Page 5

AIR LINER CRASH

FATE OF CALPURNIA’S CREW THREE OUT OF FIVE MISSING. BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN DROWNED. (Independent Cable Service.) LONDON. November 29. It is reported from Bagdad that the Imperial Airways flying-boat Calpurnia, the wreckage of which was located yesterday, crashed when attempting to land on Lake Habbaniyah during a sandstorm. Members of the crew of five who are missing and believed to be drowned are Captain A.ttwood, commander of the Canopus at the inauguration of the service between England and Cape Town in 1937, and Mr Spottiswoode, radio officer.

Mr Anderson and Probationary Station Officer Harrison were injured. Mr Übee, the steward, is not mentioned, but it is presumed that he is missing.

The Calpurnia’s mail includes 65 bags for Australia and 69 for New Zealand. R.A.F. men are trying to salvage the letters from the burst mailbags, some of which destined for New Zealand were found floating on lhe lake, but it is unlikely that all will be recovered. There is no trace of the three missing members of the crew. It is feared that their bodies are under the wreckage.

Captain Attwood, aged 39 was making his last trip after 12 years’ service. He was due to begin work as deputy director of civil aviation in India. The radio officer, Mr A. N. Spottiswoode, of the flying-boat Calpurnia, who is aged 31, lives near Southampton. He is a half-brother of Mr L. Courtenay Atwool, Auckland. He is a graduate of Cambridge University, where he took his B.A. While at the university he was very keen on motor racing, and was a prominent member of the university racing club. Upon leaving Cambridge Mr Spottiswoode joined the Royal Air Force and served for six years. For some time he was on the aircraft-carrier H.M.S. Furious. He has been in the employ of Imperial Airways for the past two years. DIVERS AT WORK SEARCH FOR MISSING MEN. UNDER SUBMERGED WRECKAGE. BAGDAD, November 29. Divers are working on the flyingboat Calpurnia’s wreckage and it is believed that the three missing members of the crew are under the forepart of the machine which is most heavily damaged and submerged. Sixty sodden mail bags have already been salvaged in addition to hundreds of letters retrieved by boats of the R.A.F. sailing club while floating on the surface of the lake.

Mr Anderson and Mr Harrison, the two surviving members of the crew, are suffering shock and are now in the Air Force hospital at Habbaniyah.