WONDERFUL ESCAPE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 June 1939, Page 7

WONDERFUL ESCAPE

PLANE HITS HIGH VOLTAGE LINE OCCUPANTS NOT INJURED. MACHINE ONLY SLIGHTLY DAMAGED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) . INVERCARGILL, June 4. When an aeroplane struck a 66,000 volt power line as it was coming in to land at the Invercargill aerodrome late yesterday afternoon, the occupants had a miraculous escape from death. Had the wires crossed or had the machine touched two, both pilot and passenger must have been killed. As it was, most of Southland was without power lor about three hours. The pilot was Mr F. Weymouth, of the Otago Aero Club, one of whose planes he was flying. The passenger was Mr T. Morrison, also of Dunedin. Neither was injured and the plane was only sligntly damaged. The machine was too nigh when a first landing was attempted after a flight from Dunedin, and the plane circled the ground. At the second attempt it was too low and one landing wheel struck one of the main supply lines which run close to the aerodrome. Three spans of line, totalling 500 yards, were torn from the poles. The plane staggered, but the pilot made an excellent landing. The only damage was the one wheel and this was not extensive enough to interfere with the landing. The breaking of the line cut the power off from most of Southland. After 50 minutes a small supply was provided for essential services in the city, but it was more than two hours before the city stand-by plant was operating and the rest of Southland was in darkness for three hours.