AIR TRAGEDY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 July 1943, Page 3

AIR TRAGEDY

THE WESTPORT CRASH FINDING OF BOARD OF INQUIRY. GROUND ENGINEER BLAMED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The report of the Board of Inquiry which investigated the cause of and the responsibility for the accident at Westport on December 12, 1942, to a .passenger aircraft operated by Air Travel (New Zealand), Limited, in which four passengers lost their lives, was released last night by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, as Acting Minister of Defence. While the aircraft was flying at about 4022 feet, the starboard propeller .dropped off, and the machine fell into the sea. The board, after hearing much evidence, found that the only feasible inference to be drawn from the evidence was that the check certified to by the ground engineer employed by the company, O. D. Openshaw, on December 12, 1942, was not properly carried out, in that the bolts securing the propeller were not then tightened, resulting in the looseness and the ultimate loss of the propeller in flight. The board recommended that such licence or authority held by Openshaw to sign out aircraft be cancelled. The board further recommended that a lifebelt be carried for each person on board where any coastal or sea route was followed.