AIR TRAGEDY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 March 1941, Page 4

AIR TRAGEDY

CRASH AT OTAHUHU PLANE LOSES WING. PILOT KILLED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, March 6. Losing a wing while flying over Otahuhu about 4 o’clock this afternoon, a Tiger Moth elementary trainer aeroplane from the Royal New Zealand Air Force Station at Whenuapai crashed in an open space between two houses near the Otahuhu Railway Workshops and was burnt. The pilot, who was flying solo, was killed. The victim was: Leading Aircraftman Frank Robert Traynor, aged 19. An airman pilot under training, he was a son of Mr F. E. Traynor, Papatoetoe. Many people saw the ci’ash. The machine went into a spin, shedding one wing, which landed about two miles away form the scene of the crash arid smaller pieces of which were later found scattered over a wide area. Witnesses considered the pilot was unable to jump from the spinning machine as he appeared to be trapped by the folded wing. A parachute was recovered from the wreckage. Missing the homes of Messrs G. Hotham and S. Clarke, off Kaka Street, by about 20 yards, the aeroplane struck on a grassy patch where children often play, midway between the two houses. Residents nearby ran to the pilot’s assistance, but were driven back by the flames, which burnt out the wreckage in a few minutes. So intense was the heat that growing grass was burning when the Otahuhu Fire Brigade arrived. The flames were extinguished as soon as possible.