FATAL AIR CRASH
VERDICT AT INQUEST
Saying that he could not venture an opinion on what actually caused the accident, but that there was a likelihood of it having been caused by a down draught, the Coroner (Mr. W. G. L. Mellish) returned a verdict at an inquest yesterday afternoon that Sergeant Pilot Thomas Victor Marchant died from injuries suffered in a crash at Wainui-o-mata on May 1.
The Coroner said that positive identification of the body had been impossible, but the matter was left clear by other evidence. What actually happened would never be known, but the conditions that obtained over those ranges, as had been pointed out by a flight lieutenant, were sometimes very bad because of the down draughts. He understood it was quite common knowledge among airmen that those down draughts were to be expected. Whether Marchant had overlooked them could not be decided.
Evidence showed that he had been flying low and seemingly in difficulties. Before the crash, he gave the machine all the power he could and must have been making some desperate endeavour to get enough flying speed to gain sufficient height to clear the hill confronting him. He was killed, and his body incinerated.
