Robert Pettitt was a carpenter when he joined the air Force in November, 1939. He as drafted to the Army and transferred to the Air Force in July 1943. He trained at the Taieri station then at Wigram. He was flying an airspeed Oxford twin-engined aeroplane when he collided with another aeroplane above Wigram.
They were on a joint training exercise when they collided while making a steep turn at 2000 feet. The other Oxford lost its tail in the collision, Pettitt's lost part of its starboard wing. Pettitt went into a dive, partially recovered at 50 feet, then rolled and crashed.
TWO LIVES LOST
Fatal Air Accident
Two members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force lost their lives in an aircraft accident at a South Island air station on Monday. The airmen were engaged in solo flying training when their machines collided in mid-air. The personnel, concerned were: —
Sergeant Robert Stuart Pettitt (wife: Mrs. R. S. Pettit. Coronation Avenue, North Road, Winton: father, Mr. R. L. Pettit, 10 Brighton Street, Roslyn, Dunedin).
L/Ac. Keith Edwin Hodge (wife: Mrs. J. M. Hodge, 41 Hinemoa Avenue. Devonport, Auckland ; mother, Mrs. M. Hodge, 25 Avon Street, Oamaru). -Dominion 16/8/1944.
DEATHS
For the Empire's Cause.
PETTITT. — On August 14, 1944, at a South Island air station, N.Z. 439407 Sergeant Robert Stuart Pettitt, dearly beloved husband of Winifred June Pettitt, formerly of Winton, and loved eldest son of Mr and Mrs R. L. Pettitt, 11 Coburn Avenue, North-east Valley, in his twentyeighth year. Deeply mourned. — The Funeral will leave 11 Coburn Avenue on Thursday, the 17th inst., at 2 p.m. (service at 1.45 p.m.) for the Anderson's Bay Cemetery. — Hope and Kinaston funeral directors. -Evening Star, 16/8/1944.
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