WOMAN FLYER SAFE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20101, 3 December 1930, Page 11

WOMAN FLYER SAFE.

MRS MILLER AT THE BAHAMAS. DRIVEN OFF COURSE BY GALE. STORY OF A FORCED LANDING. (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—BY ELECTIJIC TELEGRAPH —COPYRIGHT.) (Received December 2nd, 9.50 p.m.) NEW YORK, December 2. The story of a forced landing on a barren Bahaman island, as related on Monday night by Mrs Keith Miller, was brought to Nassau by a fishing boat from Andros Island, where she landed on Friday. Mrs Miller said that she ran into a heavy gale shortly after she hopped off on Friday. The compass on the aeroplane was at fault, and she was blown badly off her course. The severity of the weather and lack of gasoline forced her to land in the bush Ave miles back of Kemp's Bay, on Andros Island. She walked to Kemp's Bay, where she was given food and shelter. Commissioner Forsyth at Andros Island helped her to obtain a small boat, which brought her here. The aeroplane is undamaged, and she hoped to fly to Miami on Tuesday. NEW YORK, December 1. A message from Nassau (Bahamas) states that Mrs Keith Miller arrived to day. She mado a thrilling forced landing in a gale on Friday at Andros Island, in the Bahamas. Mrs C. S. Beveridge has stated that she received a telegram from her daugh ter from Nassau saying that she was safe, and asking that her friends be notified. Mrs Miller had not been reported since hopping oif from Havana (Cuba) on Friday for Florida. [The Bahamas are a chain of West Indian islands stretching nearly Cut) miles north-westward from near the coast of Haiti to the cast coast of Florida.]

RIGHTS TO FLYER'S STORY. ASSOCIATED PRESS DECLINES OFFER. (Uoceived December 2nd, 11.46 p.m.) VANCOUVER, December 2. It is understood that Captain Lancaster, who flew to Australia with Mrs Miller, has been in touch with the Associated Press, whose officials announce tliat they have declined to pay him £4OO for tho newspaper rights of Mrs Miller's sensational story of the forced landing on the barren Bahaman Island.

AVIATION EXPERTS PUZZLED. (Received December 2nd, 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, December 1. Aviation circles are puzzled as to why Mrs Miller ended her flight in the Bahamas. The assumption would be that she was blown eastward, but aviators say that tho winds on Friday blew strongly from the east. Details of the landing are difficult to obta.Ti. Captain Lancaster said at Miami that he had been advised by Mrs Miller's mother that the flyer was forced to use a collapsible rubber raft after landing and was picked up by a fishing boat. The slowness of the cm ft piesumably accounted for the length ot time required to get tho story of her rescue to the world.

MACHINE NOT DAMAGED. REQUEST MADE FOR FUEL. (Received Deoember 2nd, 7.40 p.m.)

MIAMI, December 1 The Nassau agent of the Pan-Ameri-can Airways on Monday night, by radio, requested fuel for Mrs Miller's aeroplane, which is undamaged. Captain Lancaster said that he would leave early on Tuesday in a chartered aeroplane with a mechanic and fuel. WOMAN'S FLIGHT ACROSS UNITED STATES. NEW YORK, December 1. A message from Burbank (California) states that Miss Ruth Nichols Ryeny, the society woman aviator who set a woman's trans-Continental speed record, formerly held by Mrs Keith Miller, arrived here to-day from New York. Her flying time was 17 hours three minutes. She flew from Kingman (Arizona) to-day, and used a large cabin monoplane. KINGSFORD SMITH STAMP. SYDNEY, November 2. A special postal stamp is being issued by the Commonwealth Postal Department to commemorate the aviation achievement of Air-Commodore C. E. Kingsford Smith. The basis of the design will be the two hemispheres with an aeroplane circling above.