The Daily Telegraph

AEROPLANE FALLS IN ENGLISH CHANNEL.

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THREE LIVES LOST.

NOSE DIVE INTO THE SEA.

Three lives were lost in an aeroplane accident which occurred in view of hundreds of pleasure-seekers, two miles off the shore of Folkestone, shortly after eleven o’clock on Saturday morning. The machine, a Spad, belonging to the French company Messagerie­s Aeriennes. had left Croydon for Paris, and when passing out over the sea at an altitude of some 2,000ft, was seen suddenly to “nose dive.” It crashed on to the waters with such force that it was “smashed to matchwood,” as one witness said, and two of the bodies – those of Mr. Gordon Ley, of Cumberland-mansions, an eminent consulting surgeon to several London hospitals, who was a passenger, and M Morin, the pilot – were terribly mutilated when recovered from the wreckage. The body of the other passenger, M. Paul Carroll, a Frenchman, has not yet been found, but the search is continuing.

Mr. Gordon Ley has recently made several visits to Paris on profession­al business. His special work was in the region of obstetrica­l science. A pathetic coincidenc­e is that his body, mutilated though it was, was identified by a brother surgeon, Dr. G. Varley, of Cadogan-place, S.W. 1, who was on board the Maid of Orleans, a cross-channel steamer, which stood by immediatel­y the accident happened,.

Our Folkestone correspond­ent wired that the machine was steering about 2,000ft up when it passed over Folkestone, and headed for the French coast. Suddenly, after considerab­le “back-firing,” it was seen to nose-dive straight fer the water and fell with appalling swiftness into the sea. The impact produced high clouds of spray. The Matin in Paris today publishes an account of the accident in which it says it is believed that the petrol tanks exploded.

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