Fatal Bcpa Crash
p. 139 · Read in the full issue
Lucky Escape From
BY a lucky chance, Dr. John J.
Valentine, who had been en gaged in leprosy research work in the South Pacific, escaped from the BCPA plane disaster at San Francisco on October 29. Dr. Valen tine was in New Zealand, and his passport visa stipulated that, when he joined a trans-Pacific plane, he must proceed directly to his home in Alberta, Canada. He wanted to stop over in some places, so he wrote to Canada for an extended visa.
This did not arrive, so he arranged to join the fatal BCPA plane in Nadi, Fiji.
Two hours before he left NZ, the visa arrived. So, at Nadi, he caught a plane which gave a full day at Canton Island; and at Canton he joined the BCPA plane, which
crashed, but which, under the new visa, he left at Honolulu. Had the visa not arrived in NZ, he must have lost his life.
It was Dr. Valentine who wrote to us recently about Islands shell money see page 95 of October
Pim.
Mrs. Bepe Gauta, and her two children, who joined the BCPA plane at Nadi, Fiji, also left the plane at Honolulu.
H The Hon. Havea Tu’iaha’teiho, Deputy Premier and Minister of Public Works in Tonga, accompanied by his wife, arrived in Auck land in late November on furlough.