AIR CRASH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 October 1941, Page 4

AIR CRASH

NEGLIGENCE ALLEGED COURTMARTIAL AT HAREWOOD. FLIGHT SERGEANT ON TRIAL. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, October 1. A general court-martial was opened at Harewood today when Flight Sergeant John Richard Claydon faced two charges of negligence causing the death of Leading Aircraftman Bryan Walter Lambourn in an air crash at Kaiapoi on September 11. The first charge against Claydon was that he had been guilty of negligence in relation to certain aircraft material, as a result of which a person lost his life, in that 'at Harewood on or about September 3, having authorised William .Ridley Cole to carry out an operation on two tie-rods, he neglected to exercise proper supervision, as a result of which the heads on the tie-rods were stripped, two nuts failed to hold on a service flight and the aircraft crashed on September 11, causing the death of Lambourn. The second charge alleged that Claydon had not exercised proper supervision over the assembly of an aircraft to ensure that only serviceable tie-rods and nuts were fitted, as a consequence of which the front lower mainplane attachment fittings failed to hold the fuselage and the aircraft crashed. Claydon pleaded not guilty to both charges. After evidence had been heard and given by the prosecuting officer and counsel for Claydon, the Court adjourned to hear the judge-advocate's summing-up.