Hongkong. June 3.
Two foreigners and two Chinese occupants of an Imperial Airways plane, the Dorado, escaped death this morning when the machine caught fire on the ground just before taking off for Bangkok.
The foreigners, an American,. Mr. John Lecount. and the Imperial Airways manager, Mr. W. M. Watts, and two Chinese employees of the service, were trapped inside the cabin and surrounded by flames. They subsequently managed to escape through the emergency exit.
All mail and freight were safely removed.
Loss of life was only avoided by the coolness of Mr. Watts who shepherded the others on to the wing p and waited until they had all jumped off, before jumping off himself. The only casualty was one of the Chinese employees, who broke his leg in leaping to safety.
Damage to the plane. which was at first thought to be slight, later appeared more serious. For this reason, the Daedalus. which is arriving here today, will take over the Dorado's schedule—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.