DEATH OF TWO AIRMEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 June 1942, Page 2

DEATH OF TWO AIRMEN

INQUEST IN! WELLINGTON. ECHO OF TRAGEDY IN TARARUA ' RANGES. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. An inquest into the death of two members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force who disappeared on a training flight from a North Island aerodrome on January 14 was held by the coroner, Mr W. G. L. Mellish, in Wellington yesterday. The bodies of the men, Leading Aircraftman Ronald Alfred Walter Abrahams and LeadingAircraftman James Edgar Norman Corin, were found in the wreckage, of their Airspeed Oxford near North King in the Tararua Ranges, by a party which reached it on May 26, having been guided there by a stalker who had seen the wreckage from a long way off on April 22. Evidence was given by Constable McCallum, Masterton, concerning the finding of the bodies. . The coroner’s verdict was that Abrahams and Corin died near North King in the Tararuas as a result. of injuries received when theii’ aircraft crashed. He added that there was nothing to show that the aircraft was not airworthy. The men were probably flying blind when they struck the hill without being able to avoid it. The coroner said credit was due to Mr M. Trass for his interest and assistance in the discovery, and to Constable McCallum on the report he had prepared.