AIRMEN'S DEATHS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21205, 30 August 1940, Page 9

AIRMEN'S DEATHS

CRASH AT AKAROA FINDING BY CORONER I . STALLED FLYING LOW (By Telegraph.—Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Thursday An inquest into the deaths of two members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, who were killed when an Airspeed Oxford machine crashed at Akaroa on June 15, was completed in Christchurch before the coroner, Mr E. C. Levvey, S.M. The men were Leading Aircraftsman John Lindsay McFadyen and Leading Aircraftsman Francis Morris McFarlane, respectively pilot and gunner of the aeroplane. Expert evidence was given by members of the ground staff at Wigram. William Laurie Marson, flight mechanic, said he had inspected the machine on the previous day and had found everything in first-class order. Dennis Bowen Patterson, flight rigger at Wigram, said that he had inspected the fabric, undercarriage, elevators, rudder and other equipment of the machine, and had found them to be all in perfect order. Pupils Above Average Robert Henry Swan King, flightlieutenant, said that the men killed had been under his supervision for about six weeks. Each man had had about five months of solo flying, and was within about two weeks of completing training and going overseas. Both were pupils above the average and both had been in good health. The coroner found in each case that death was caused by injuries suffered when the machine stalled on a steep turn to the left at a low altitude and spun to the ground, bursting into flames on impact.