Aeroplane Wrecked
pp. 17-18 · Read in the full issue
Crash at Wau, T.N.G.
A STINSON Reliant single-engined aeroplane, owned by Guinea Airways Ltd., and piloted by Mr. W. J. Robins, crashed soon after taking off from Wau aerodrome on the morning of Friday, August 27.
The machine was loaded with refriger ating machinery and the ’drome was partly blanketed in a heavy fog. The aeroplane, apparently, got out of control soon after leaving the aerodrome, and it came down near the edge of the golf links, crashing into one of the native labour houses in the Government com pound.
A native, employed by Amalgamated Wireless (A’sia) Ltd. as an engine boy, was struck by falling timbers and died subsequently in hospital. Mr. Robins miraculously escaped serious injury, but suffered severely from shock. The ’plane was completely wrecked, and has been written off as a total loss.
This is the first serious accident recorded in New Guinea for a long time. This freedom from accident is the more remarkable because prac tically the whole of the mainland gold fields traffic is carried on by aeroplanes, and both the country and the weather are by no means ideal for flying.
Mr. A. S. de Montalk, who has been headmaster of the Boys’ Grammar School at Suva, Fiji, since 1933, returned to New Zealand at the end of August by the Niagara.
Mr. W. M. Greer, of Aropa Plantation, Kieta, returned to New Guinea from Sydney by the Macdhui on August 28.