Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 20, 2022 20:55:28 GMT 12
I found this article interesting. A Canadian aircraft crashed in Hawaii in 1962. A couple of the survivors were Kiwis, one being ex-RNZAF...
‘No Time To Panic’
(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) HONOLULU, July 24.
One of 13 persons who lived through the crash of a Canadian Pacific airliner at Honolulu yesterday said it happened so fast “we didn’t have time to panic.” Mr Peter Rosieur, aged 21. of Auckland, who was travelling home from Britain, said: "We were coming in. Everything seemed to be all right. Then the left wing went down and the right one went up. There was a blinding flame. "I could see we were going to crash, but there wasn’t time to panic.”
The next thing he remembered, Mr Rosieur said, was when he awoke on the ground, still strapped to his seat but thrown clear of the burning fuselage. He said he met one other passenger walking away from the wreckage.
Another survivor, Mr Frederick Manuel, of Melbourne. said: "It was a normal take-off. approximately at 10.35 p.m. After about 15 minutes airborne the captain gave a message that he had to cut one engine." Mr Manuel said it was about half an hour later that the four-engine plane was given landing clearance. “I remember approaching It looked like the plane was 20 to 30 feet above the ground The pilot did not let her down. I had a hunch it seemed light. Then he went up. "I thought he was going to land. It gave me the impression that we were too far down the runway, that he (the pilot) was too late. He went to raise her, and it folded ”
Mr Manuel said he and Mr Harry Soukop. the plane’s purser, both in first-class compartments, managed to get through a door. They returned to help other passengers. They freed 78-year-old Mrs Edith M. Hutchinson, of Melbourne, and a stewardess. Nancy Chalmers, of Vancouver.
Mr Soukop said the crash was a complete mystery to him. “The captain announced that due to a malfunction we had to return to Honolulu. He told passengers when the fuel was dumped and that we were cleared for landing. “Everything appeared to be normal as usual. I made my rounds as usual, talking to passengers. They were well-behaved.
"There were lots of flames, but no light in the cabin. We saw no life or movement at all," Mr Soukop said. The purser, who said he would continue to fly, called such emergency landings routine.“I just cannot judge what happened. It is the biggest mystery.”
Mr Bernard Knowles, a meat importer from Wellington. and former Royal New Zealand Air Force flight instructor, said he was the pilot of a plane in a similar crash in New Zealand in World War II. "I wasn’t especially alarmed. I always sit back as far as possible.” he said. "So I took a seat in the tourist section right behind the starboard wing. I went on reading when they announced there was trouble in the No 1 engine and when they dumped the fuel.
"The pilot talked about an hour-and-a-half delay to fix the engine. I thought there was nothing to worry about. He made a good approach down to about 20 or 25 feet. We were over the runway.
“Then I felt the nose go up and the throttles go on, not much, just enough to carry us further. I thought we were going to overshoot the runway. I didn’t like that. Then the wing dropped.
"I don't know if it was a stall or a turn but it was probably a stall at that speed. The first bump was gentle.
“That was probably the wing hitting. After that they came fiercer and fiercer. Things came raining down from the racks up above. There were flashes of flames The lights went out. I thought my last moments had come," he said. He escaped with cuts and bruises and a possible dislocation of the shoulder.
Mr Rosieur and the other survivors told of their experience—the first fatal crash of a commercial airliner to Hawaii—from wheelchairs at Tripler United States Army Hospital. None of the survivors was seriously hurt. They suffered an assortment of minor injuries such as broken toes and cuts.
PRESS, 25 JULY 1962
‘No Time To Panic’
(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) HONOLULU, July 24.
One of 13 persons who lived through the crash of a Canadian Pacific airliner at Honolulu yesterday said it happened so fast “we didn’t have time to panic.” Mr Peter Rosieur, aged 21. of Auckland, who was travelling home from Britain, said: "We were coming in. Everything seemed to be all right. Then the left wing went down and the right one went up. There was a blinding flame. "I could see we were going to crash, but there wasn’t time to panic.”
The next thing he remembered, Mr Rosieur said, was when he awoke on the ground, still strapped to his seat but thrown clear of the burning fuselage. He said he met one other passenger walking away from the wreckage.
Another survivor, Mr Frederick Manuel, of Melbourne. said: "It was a normal take-off. approximately at 10.35 p.m. After about 15 minutes airborne the captain gave a message that he had to cut one engine." Mr Manuel said it was about half an hour later that the four-engine plane was given landing clearance. “I remember approaching It looked like the plane was 20 to 30 feet above the ground The pilot did not let her down. I had a hunch it seemed light. Then he went up. "I thought he was going to land. It gave me the impression that we were too far down the runway, that he (the pilot) was too late. He went to raise her, and it folded ”
Mr Manuel said he and Mr Harry Soukop. the plane’s purser, both in first-class compartments, managed to get through a door. They returned to help other passengers. They freed 78-year-old Mrs Edith M. Hutchinson, of Melbourne, and a stewardess. Nancy Chalmers, of Vancouver.
Mr Soukop said the crash was a complete mystery to him. “The captain announced that due to a malfunction we had to return to Honolulu. He told passengers when the fuel was dumped and that we were cleared for landing. “Everything appeared to be normal as usual. I made my rounds as usual, talking to passengers. They were well-behaved.
"There were lots of flames, but no light in the cabin. We saw no life or movement at all," Mr Soukop said. The purser, who said he would continue to fly, called such emergency landings routine.“I just cannot judge what happened. It is the biggest mystery.”
Mr Bernard Knowles, a meat importer from Wellington. and former Royal New Zealand Air Force flight instructor, said he was the pilot of a plane in a similar crash in New Zealand in World War II. "I wasn’t especially alarmed. I always sit back as far as possible.” he said. "So I took a seat in the tourist section right behind the starboard wing. I went on reading when they announced there was trouble in the No 1 engine and when they dumped the fuel.
"The pilot talked about an hour-and-a-half delay to fix the engine. I thought there was nothing to worry about. He made a good approach down to about 20 or 25 feet. We were over the runway.
“Then I felt the nose go up and the throttles go on, not much, just enough to carry us further. I thought we were going to overshoot the runway. I didn’t like that. Then the wing dropped.
"I don't know if it was a stall or a turn but it was probably a stall at that speed. The first bump was gentle.
“That was probably the wing hitting. After that they came fiercer and fiercer. Things came raining down from the racks up above. There were flashes of flames The lights went out. I thought my last moments had come," he said. He escaped with cuts and bruises and a possible dislocation of the shoulder.
Mr Rosieur and the other survivors told of their experience—the first fatal crash of a commercial airliner to Hawaii—from wheelchairs at Tripler United States Army Hospital. None of the survivors was seriously hurt. They suffered an assortment of minor injuries such as broken toes and cuts.
PRESS, 25 JULY 1962
