AIR TRAGEDY

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20262, 3 August 1937, Page 8

AIR TRAGEDY

DESTRUCTION OF LINER. CAUGHT FIRE WHEN LANDING. NINE PEOPLE KILLED. United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright. CAIRO, August 1. Four passengers and a crew of five were killed when an Italian air liner caught fire and was destroyed on landing at Wadi Haifa. This is the first accident involving loss of life which the company owning the machine has had. BIG BAY FATALITY. PILOT BLAMEWORTHY. BOARD'S INVESTIGATION. FINDING OF NEGLIGENCE. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. The conclusion that the Big Bay air tragedy on December 30 last year when a passenger was .killed and others were Injured was due to the negligence of the pilot, A. J. Bradshaw, was reached by the Board of Inquiry appointed by the Government to Investigate the circumstances. The report says Bradshaw was issued with a commercial pilot’s license in June, 1934. He arranged to take with himself as pilot four passengers r rom the Myross Bush Aerodrome to Waiho Gorge. A party of trampers was at Big Bay and one of the four passengers was to he landed there to ioin this party. When about to land the machine stalled and fell Into the There was no telephone in or about Big Bay, and it was impossible for him to get exact information as to landing conditions, but he had flown over the dividing ranges that morning and observed that the weather conditions on that portion of the West Coast were satisfactory. The pilot said the *each was well known to him and when not carrying passengers for hire he had landed there 12 to 18 times.