DISASTROUS DIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 January 1941, Page 8

DISASTROUS DIVE

AIR FORCE PLANE CRASHES INTO HARBOUR TWO OFFICERS INJURED AT AUCKLAND. ONE IX SERIOUS CONDITION.

ißy Telegraph-Press Association.) AUCKLAND. January 6. A Royal New Zealand Air Force machine from the Hobsonville Air Base crashed into the harbour this afternoon a short distance off the mouth of the Whau Creek. The two officers man-

j aged to scramble on top of ■ the wreckage and were rescued by a • private launch before being transferred ■to a Tasman Empire Airways tender and sent to the Auckland Hospital. The officers wore:— Pilot Officer Peter S. XVorsp. aged 24. Whangarei, who suffered shock and abrasions. His condition is not serious. Pilot Officer Arthur C. Long, aged 27. Kelburn. Wellington, who suffered injuries to his back and head and i concussion. His condition is serious, i It was officially stated that the aeroi plane, a Tiger Moth training machine. . fitted for dual control, was returning ! to Hobsonville from a short training : flight. Both officers have been attend-

ing the instructors' course at Hobson- ! ville and had been away from the base j for from 40 to 50 minutes. It was not ' known tonight who was at the controls ; when the machine crashed.

RESCUE BY LAUNCH. Mr S. Day. owner of the launch j Alma which was anchored in the Whau ■ Creek, said he saw the machine go ' over toward the Hobsonville arm of tile harbour. Suddenly it seemed to ; get out of control and dived steeply. ■ Before the pilot could correct its dive I the Moth hit the water, sending up a \ huge splash. Athough he thought the occupants ' must have been instantly killed or would be drowned before ho could got to the machine. Mr Day summoned | assistance from the shore and took the : Alma down the Whau Creek to the j shoal water off its mouth. Here he ’ found that the machine had struck in i tour or five feet of water from which j the top of the fuselage behind the rear cockpit and part of the crumpled wings i protruded. To his relief he found the two air-

. men silting on the machine, one sup- ' porting the other. Mr Day manoeuvred his launch alongside the wreckage, and he and a Mr Jackson succeeded in ! taking the two airmen otf and placing. ; them in a dinghy, l.ater an Air Force i launch from the Hobsonville air base arrived and two fast tenders belonging j to Tasman-Empire Airways sped from : the city. ; 'The two airmen were placed on one : of these tenders and brought rapidly : back to Queen's Wharf, where an ambulance waited to take them to the i .Auckland Hospital . Thej - were ati tended up the harbour by Flight Lieutenant .A. McKenzie Gunn, medical ! oTicer attached to the air base. RADIO AMBULANCE CALL. j A call for an ambulance was sent by | radio from the airways tender to the ! Musick memorial radio station. It was j then relayed by telephone to the am-

bulance headquarters. The tender continued to use its radio to inform the ambulance of its progress tin the harbour with the airmen and to have some special supplies waiting for them. A line had meantime been made fast from the Air Force launch to the wreckage of the Aloth. Although little of it showed above water, the weight of the engine keeping most of its submerged. it could be seen that ’.lie airscrew had been snapped elf and the wings thrust back out of alignment. The wreckage was ta lien in tow by the launch and pullet! o!T into deep water for return to Hobsonville.

Pilot Officer Long is a son of the Rev. F. C. Long, general secretary of the New Zealand Anglican Board of Mission.-. Wellington. He was appointed an instructor at the Hobsonville

base on January 2 this year He received his training with the R.N Z A F a: Levin. New Plymouth :md Blenh< im where ho pa-sed his examinaHe was educated at Wellington College an 1 at Vict<iria Univers tx C Before .mir-.mc ’he RN Z A F tie