FLYING ACCIDENTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 August 1943, Page 3

FLYING ACCIDENTS

LOSSES OVERSEAS DURING WAR. CASUALTIES IN NEW ZEALAND. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Casualties to New Zealand air personnel serving overseas from the outbreak of war to March 31, 1943, total 2001, according to figures published in the annual report of the Air Department presented in the House of Representatives yesterday. Deaths in New Zealand among air personnel for the same period total 212, and of this number 165 were due to flying accidents. The classification of overseas casualties since the start of the war to March 31 last is as follows, the increase over the figures up to the end of March 31, 1942, being shown in parentheses: —Killed, 1206 (677); missing, believed killed, 175 (124); missing, 307 (172); prisoner of war or interned, 287 (155); missing, believed prisoner of war, 26 (20). In addition, 66 personnel have been reported seriously injured or ill, and remained on the list at March 31. During the year ended March 31 last, 76 lives were lost in New Zealand in 38 flying accidents, the total fatalities since the outbreak of war through this cause being 165. Other aircraft accidents accounted for four deaths, motor and other non-flying accidents for 22 deaths, and natural causes for 21 deaths, including two W.A.A.F. members.