Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), Friday 18 June 1954, page 6


Jet Crash Victims' Funerals Today

IPSWICH, June 17 - The funerals of the three victims

of Wednesday's Canberra jet bomber crash at Amberley RAAF station will take placetomorrow after a combined

service in the Air Force chappel at Amberley.

Two of the crash victims, Flight - Lieutenant Francis Noel Davis, D.F.C., of East Ipswich, and Flight-Lieutenant David Charles Nicholls, of

Sydney, will be cremated at

the Mt Thompson Crema- torium. The third pilot, Pilot

Officer F. B. Adler, of Mel-bourne, will be buried at Lut-

wyche Cemetery.

The Director of Flying

Safety, Wing Commander C. F. Brown, of Melbourne, and Flight- Lieutenant Wittmann, of Williamtown (NSW.), a member of the RAAF Court

of Inquiry, arrived at Amber-

ley this afternoon. Two other members of the court. Wing

Commander D. R. Cuming, who

will preside at the inquiry, and

Squadron Leader Leopold, will arrive tomorrow morning from Melbourne.

Wing Commander Cuming is the RAAF"s chief test pilot and jet bomber expert. He ferried the first Canberra jet to Australia from England.

Today the RAAF officially denied rumours that the crash-

ed jet was testing new engine equipment still on the secret

list. It was stated that the Canberra had taken off only a short time before the crash on

a normal training flight, con-verting crews of Lincoln bomb-

ers to jet flying.

An Air Force spokesman said that the plane had made a cir-cuit of the aerodrome and was coming in on a simulated landing approach, with its wheels down, when the motors appeared to cut and it spun into the ground.

Salvage crews worked last

night clearing the scattered wreckage, which lay at the intersection of the two main runways. The runways were

clear by this morning and Amberley was open for normal

operations.