Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 9, 2012 19:01:52 GMT 12
Mystery over woman's death plunge
IAN ALLEN
Last updated 13:50 09/02/2012
FAIRFAX NZ
MYSTERIOUS DEATH: Viva Maud or Waud Farmar as pictured in The Marlborough Express in 1937.
SUPPLIED
NO CLUES: Veteran television and radio presenter Max Cryer has not found any clues about the mysterious death of Viva Farmar, who plunged to her death from a plane over Cook Strait 75 years ago.
FAIRFAX NZ
FRONT-PAGE NEWS: A copy of the story on Farmar's death in The Marlborough Express on February 9, 1937.
Veteran television and radio presenter Max Cryer has tried to shed light on the mysterious death of Viva Farmar, who plunged to her death from a Marlborough Aero Club plane 75 years ago.
It was Cryer who first prompted The Marlborough Express to investigate her curious actions.
The Radio Live presenter was on the trail because a friend, interested in New Zealand aeronautics history, asked him to "look into" it.
Despite his best efforts, Cryer could find no evidence on why the Wairau Hospital theatre nurse forced open the two-seater Waco plane's door during a flight across Cook Strait on February 8, 1937, and plunged to her death from 2500 feet.
Just as her death remains a mystery, details of Farmar's life are not forthcoming.
Farmar, the daughter of Frederick Broadley Farmar and Maud Matilda Farmar, was born in 1886. Her birth was not registered with the Births, Deaths and Marriages registry and there was "some belief that she was illegitimate or adopted or both, but this is not at all clear", Cryer said.
Also, her middle name is not clear. At times it was recorded as Maud or Waud – an old family name that featured frequently in the Farmar lineage, he said.
Farmar trained as a nurse, and in 1906 she joined the staff of Wairau Hospital in Blenheim. In 1918, she spent a year as a military nurse on the front line during World War I.
She returned home and to the hospital in September 1919.
By 1927 she had become assistant matron and was known for energetically combining her designated duties with roles as theatre sister, home sister, X-ray sister and dispenser of drugs and lotions, Cryer said.
In 1929, she joined the Marlborough Aero Club. After completing 100 hours' flying time, she qualified for a pilot A licence.
In February 1937, she left Blenheim in a Wellington-bound Waco Cabin plane as the sole passenger. The pilot reported that halfway across she jumped out and he was unable to locate the body.
The pilot's account is the only report of what happened.
In September that year, a Wellington police file reported that no inquest would be held into her death.
Ad Feedback "The ambiguity surrounding the accident may be the reason she appears not to have been entered on the New Zealand Births, Deaths and Marriages registry," Cryer said.
"No body was ever recovered, so no doctor's signature could verify her death and, in formal terms, she may have been permanently assigned 'missing person' status."
The death of a missing person is sometimes acknowledged seven years after the person disappeared. This would have been 1944, but no death was registered then, he said.
Later in 1937, Farmar's father died. Her mother lived until 1948. There appear to be no direct descendants from the family in New Zealand.
Farmar's sister, Hilda Russell, died in 1962, and their brother, Frederick, died in Sydney in 1977. He had no known sons.
There seems to be only one family remaining in New Zealand with the name Farmar, Cryer said, but if Geoffrey Noel Farmar, a musician in Canterbury, is related to Viva it would not be directly as a cousin, he said.
PLUNGE FROM PLANE RECALLED 75 YEARS ON
Yesterday marked the 75th anniversary of a strange and tragic day in the history of the Marlborough Aero Club that remains shrouded in mystery.
On February 8, 1937, during a flight across Cook Strait, a normally cheerful woman in her early 50s forced open the plane's door and plunged to her death from 2500 feet.
According to a report in The Marlborough Express at the time, from accounts of those closely associated with Viva Farmar and those who saw her before she left on the ill-fated trip, she was looking forward to her two-week holiday in the North Island.
Marlborough Aero Club records show Farmar was an experienced pilot in her own right.
She was the sixth woman in New Zealand to hold the equivalent of today's private pilot's licence, which she had obtained from the aero club seven years earlier.
By 1937, Farmar had clocked about 100 hours' flying time.
Her death was described in the Express as a severe blow to all who knew her.
Sympathy was felt for her relatives and the pilot of the two-seater Waco plane bound for Wellington, when "without warning of any kind, his passenger suddenly decided on her dramatic and tragic action", the story said.
Describing the incident to the Express, Pilot-Officer A E Willis, who was obviously deeply affected, said that when he called to take Farmar to the aerodrome she appeared to be in her usual good spirits.
On the way to the aerodrome she discussed events of the weekend, which were of particular interest to members as the Wellington Aero Club had sent a tennis team over in four of its craft on the Saturday and had been guests of the Marlborough Aero Club for the weekend.
Farmar had been in charge of afternoon tea and supper at the clubrooms and the hamper for a Marlborough Sounds picnic, and she talked of various incidents of the visit in a cheerful, vivacious manner, offering no suggestion whatever that she was in any way under mental stress, the article said.
At the aerodrome, she displayed the same cheerful disposition and she entered the plane casually, taking a seat alongside the pilot.
"I think we were about halfway over when she remarked that she wanted to get something from her handbag, which was lying on the rear seat," said the pilot.
"Little movement was necessary for her to get it and I had not the slightest hesitation in allowing her to move from her seat, particularly because she had plenty of experience of air travel.
"She shifted to the rear seat and the next I knew was that there was a draught in the plane.
"I looked around and was shocked to see the door open and Miss Farmar in the act of jumping. I tried to reach her but she eluded me and before I could do anything more she went through the door. The whole thing happened almost in a second.
"The plane needed immediate attention at the controls and I soon had it in hand again.
"I then followed Miss Farmar all the way down to the sea, dropping in circles from about 2500 feet to 50 feet above the water.
"She hit the sea sometime before I could get down but I could see perfectly and she just went in and disappeared. The sea was pretty rough, with white horses everywhere.
"Then I flew around the place for some time but I couldn't see a sign of her, and after a while I decided that the only thing I could do was to get back to Blenheim as soon as a I could and report the whole thing."
Soon after Willis got back, contact was made with civil aviation authorities and an order was received that the plane was not to be flown until it had been inspected by the department.
In the afternoon, R C Kean, an inspector with the department, flew over by the airways service and later pilot officer Willis, accompanied by Kean, Marlborough Aero Club president A A MacNab and Constable E F Smith, took the Waco up for tests to be carried out on the door.
Results were to be presented to the department, which would decide whether a departmental inquiry should be held.
Evidence was also presented to the coroner by police, who would in turn report to the attorney-general, who would decide whether an inquest should be held.
Marlborough Aero Club president Neville Brown described Farmar's actions as unusual and that little was known of the complete sequence of events.
- The Marlborough Express
IAN ALLEN
Last updated 13:50 09/02/2012
FAIRFAX NZ
MYSTERIOUS DEATH: Viva Maud or Waud Farmar as pictured in The Marlborough Express in 1937.
SUPPLIED
NO CLUES: Veteran television and radio presenter Max Cryer has not found any clues about the mysterious death of Viva Farmar, who plunged to her death from a plane over Cook Strait 75 years ago.
FAIRFAX NZ
FRONT-PAGE NEWS: A copy of the story on Farmar's death in The Marlborough Express on February 9, 1937.
Veteran television and radio presenter Max Cryer has tried to shed light on the mysterious death of Viva Farmar, who plunged to her death from a Marlborough Aero Club plane 75 years ago.
It was Cryer who first prompted The Marlborough Express to investigate her curious actions.
The Radio Live presenter was on the trail because a friend, interested in New Zealand aeronautics history, asked him to "look into" it.
Despite his best efforts, Cryer could find no evidence on why the Wairau Hospital theatre nurse forced open the two-seater Waco plane's door during a flight across Cook Strait on February 8, 1937, and plunged to her death from 2500 feet.
Just as her death remains a mystery, details of Farmar's life are not forthcoming.
Farmar, the daughter of Frederick Broadley Farmar and Maud Matilda Farmar, was born in 1886. Her birth was not registered with the Births, Deaths and Marriages registry and there was "some belief that she was illegitimate or adopted or both, but this is not at all clear", Cryer said.
Also, her middle name is not clear. At times it was recorded as Maud or Waud – an old family name that featured frequently in the Farmar lineage, he said.
Farmar trained as a nurse, and in 1906 she joined the staff of Wairau Hospital in Blenheim. In 1918, she spent a year as a military nurse on the front line during World War I.
She returned home and to the hospital in September 1919.
By 1927 she had become assistant matron and was known for energetically combining her designated duties with roles as theatre sister, home sister, X-ray sister and dispenser of drugs and lotions, Cryer said.
In 1929, she joined the Marlborough Aero Club. After completing 100 hours' flying time, she qualified for a pilot A licence.
In February 1937, she left Blenheim in a Wellington-bound Waco Cabin plane as the sole passenger. The pilot reported that halfway across she jumped out and he was unable to locate the body.
The pilot's account is the only report of what happened.
In September that year, a Wellington police file reported that no inquest would be held into her death.
Ad Feedback "The ambiguity surrounding the accident may be the reason she appears not to have been entered on the New Zealand Births, Deaths and Marriages registry," Cryer said.
"No body was ever recovered, so no doctor's signature could verify her death and, in formal terms, she may have been permanently assigned 'missing person' status."
The death of a missing person is sometimes acknowledged seven years after the person disappeared. This would have been 1944, but no death was registered then, he said.
Later in 1937, Farmar's father died. Her mother lived until 1948. There appear to be no direct descendants from the family in New Zealand.
Farmar's sister, Hilda Russell, died in 1962, and their brother, Frederick, died in Sydney in 1977. He had no known sons.
There seems to be only one family remaining in New Zealand with the name Farmar, Cryer said, but if Geoffrey Noel Farmar, a musician in Canterbury, is related to Viva it would not be directly as a cousin, he said.
PLUNGE FROM PLANE RECALLED 75 YEARS ON
Yesterday marked the 75th anniversary of a strange and tragic day in the history of the Marlborough Aero Club that remains shrouded in mystery.
On February 8, 1937, during a flight across Cook Strait, a normally cheerful woman in her early 50s forced open the plane's door and plunged to her death from 2500 feet.
According to a report in The Marlborough Express at the time, from accounts of those closely associated with Viva Farmar and those who saw her before she left on the ill-fated trip, she was looking forward to her two-week holiday in the North Island.
Marlborough Aero Club records show Farmar was an experienced pilot in her own right.
She was the sixth woman in New Zealand to hold the equivalent of today's private pilot's licence, which she had obtained from the aero club seven years earlier.
By 1937, Farmar had clocked about 100 hours' flying time.
Her death was described in the Express as a severe blow to all who knew her.
Sympathy was felt for her relatives and the pilot of the two-seater Waco plane bound for Wellington, when "without warning of any kind, his passenger suddenly decided on her dramatic and tragic action", the story said.
Describing the incident to the Express, Pilot-Officer A E Willis, who was obviously deeply affected, said that when he called to take Farmar to the aerodrome she appeared to be in her usual good spirits.
On the way to the aerodrome she discussed events of the weekend, which were of particular interest to members as the Wellington Aero Club had sent a tennis team over in four of its craft on the Saturday and had been guests of the Marlborough Aero Club for the weekend.
Farmar had been in charge of afternoon tea and supper at the clubrooms and the hamper for a Marlborough Sounds picnic, and she talked of various incidents of the visit in a cheerful, vivacious manner, offering no suggestion whatever that she was in any way under mental stress, the article said.
At the aerodrome, she displayed the same cheerful disposition and she entered the plane casually, taking a seat alongside the pilot.
"I think we were about halfway over when she remarked that she wanted to get something from her handbag, which was lying on the rear seat," said the pilot.
"Little movement was necessary for her to get it and I had not the slightest hesitation in allowing her to move from her seat, particularly because she had plenty of experience of air travel.
"She shifted to the rear seat and the next I knew was that there was a draught in the plane.
"I looked around and was shocked to see the door open and Miss Farmar in the act of jumping. I tried to reach her but she eluded me and before I could do anything more she went through the door. The whole thing happened almost in a second.
"The plane needed immediate attention at the controls and I soon had it in hand again.
"I then followed Miss Farmar all the way down to the sea, dropping in circles from about 2500 feet to 50 feet above the water.
"She hit the sea sometime before I could get down but I could see perfectly and she just went in and disappeared. The sea was pretty rough, with white horses everywhere.
"Then I flew around the place for some time but I couldn't see a sign of her, and after a while I decided that the only thing I could do was to get back to Blenheim as soon as a I could and report the whole thing."
Soon after Willis got back, contact was made with civil aviation authorities and an order was received that the plane was not to be flown until it had been inspected by the department.
In the afternoon, R C Kean, an inspector with the department, flew over by the airways service and later pilot officer Willis, accompanied by Kean, Marlborough Aero Club president A A MacNab and Constable E F Smith, took the Waco up for tests to be carried out on the door.
Results were to be presented to the department, which would decide whether a departmental inquiry should be held.
Evidence was also presented to the coroner by police, who would in turn report to the attorney-general, who would decide whether an inquest should be held.
Marlborough Aero Club president Neville Brown described Farmar's actions as unusual and that little was known of the complete sequence of events.
- The Marlborough Express
