High Ranking U.S. Officials Lose Lives

Chronicle (Levin), 19 August 1947, Page 5

High Ranking U.S. Officials Lose Lives

(N.Z.P.A.-

-Reuter,

Copyright)

HONOLULU, August 17. An Army transport piane carryin;: Mr. George Ateheson, political advisei .0 General MacArthur, made a- forcec .anding at sea 70 miles from Hawaii on Baturday night. An announcement b> irmy headquarters said the plane's pilot radioed that ^he had run out oi petrol in a flight from Kwajalien. Abont 8 -a.m. Honolulu time todaj learch pilots radioed that they hai sighted six survivors in the water. Twc were in "Mae West" life jackets an(. ino ther was clinging to an overturneo raft. The searcli pilots dropped rat'ts and saw one man crawl into the raft and pull in two others. Another planc reported sighting an abandoned raft nearby. The Coastguard cutter Hermes piok ed up three survivors from a raft wlu. were then transferred to a plane a'nt. ire being flown to Honolulu. Two are reported injured. The first report that the Flying Fortress carrying Mr. George Ateheson and high-ranking army officcrs was in trouble over the Pacific came at 11.35 p.m., Honolulu time, when the pilot radioed that he -was running out oi petrol and cut off two engines. Hi added: "I've got to hit the vvatei while I've got power." His last mes sage 15 minutes later said: "It's timi for me to hit the water." Seven search planes went out imme diately and later eight destroyers, two Coastguard ships,- an oiltanker and two patrol craft headed for the scene. The search planes dropped fiares steadiljuntil daylight, but no survivors weri seen for- several hours. , Mr. Ateheson, who is chairman ot the Allied Control Couneil in Japan with the ranlc of an ambassador, wa5 en route to Washington to attend Btate Department conferences. He was be lieved to be going to Washington to take part in the preliminary talks on the Japanese peace treaty. Thirteen people were aboard the missing aircraft, which, according to army transport command officers in San Franeisco, was General MacArthur 's personal plane, the Bataan. Bad weather apparently caused the plane to run out of petrol before ryiching Honolulu, and squalls are still handieapping the searchers who are fmding visibility limited.' Later reports sav that seven dead bodies have been piclced up. Thus three are unaccounted for. Mr. Ateheson is ohe of the three missing. The three survivors have been identi fied as Colonel Harvey Huglin, Captain P. Rider, and Bergeant Holiand.