Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 28 February 1926, page 1


AN AIR TRAGEDY

CALLOUSNESS OF CINEMA MEN

Photograph of an Aviator in Agony

PARIS. Saturday.

Considerable- indignation has been expressed, particularly, by friends and relatives of the, aviator, Collet, at the alleged callousness of several camera men who, when the 'plane crashed, calmly turned the handles of their ma-

chines and recorded the scene, totally

disregarding the struggles of the pilot

in a vain endeavor to free himself. The cinema men photographed him slowly scorching to death. The authorities have banned the presentation of the picture in France, and are endeavor-

ing also to stop it in England and America.

[An' earlier cable stated that air-man. Leon Collot, made a bet with an American that he would fly beneath the span of the Eiffel Tower. He ac-complished the actual feat, but when he tried to rise the machine became entangled in an "aerial" of the wire-less station, and dropped like a stone over the Champ de Mars and crashed through a tree to the lawn below. Flames broke out, and the pilot was burned to death, while he was in his seat in the machine and gripping the levers.

Witnesses of the crash averred that the pilot

made a contract with a foreign cinematograph firm to fly twice under the span of the Eiffel Tower, while a parachutist was to plunge from the second platform of the tower after the aeroplane's second passage. A search was being made for the parachutist, who disappeared

after the accident.]