LONG DISTANCE FLIGHTS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 March 1928, Page 4

LONG DISTANCE FLIGHTS

THEIR TOLL OF LIVE. Tin- disappearance of Captain II inchcliff e and iiis companion, Miss Elsie Mackav Ims had its parallel- in the past. Other airmen have reappeared alter forced docents on land .and s -a. but there have been many tragedies where mysterious pages have been written in tlm history e.l aviation. The epic case of the Australian. Harry Hawker and bis inmpiiniuii. Lieutenant Grieve, who. on their attcini.. to fly across the Atlantic, were a week overdue when they ruined up, having lie.,'n picked up by a passing steamer is the classic instance of the justification of inith in the ultimate triumph of good luck against late. Hawker, who had Lieutenant Grieve a-.; his navigator, was only 100 miles (-/f iichieving the honour of first crossing the North Atlantic when he was forced down into the sea. He had taken off from Newfoundland on May IS. Intense interest in the flight was taken, on both sides of the Atlantic. Anxiety ran high when word came from the aviator that he was running out of petrol 100 miles off the Irish coast. Days passed during which the silence of fate seemed to have engulfed them. A search by vessels proved fruitless hope had almost been given up when word came from a coastguard at the North of Scotland that Hawker and Grieve had been rescued l>v tlio Danish steamer Mary. A destroyer was sent out and the airmen were taken from the Alary and landed at Thurso. Scotland. ENGINE FAILED. Tt transpired that when 1850 miles had been covered and the aeroplane was off the coast of Ireland the water circulation of the engine was found to have stopped. Thsi meant that they would have to descend. They cruised for two hours over the surface until the ATarv was sighted, and they were taken on board. A remarkable reception was accorded the aviators for their glorious failure when tliev arrived in London. Tliov were decorated bv the King with the Air Force Cross. The wreckage of tlieir machine and the mails that it carried were after wards picked up by a steamer. BRITAIN FIRST. A month later Britain secured the honour of being first- in the air over the Atlantic, when Captain 3. Alcock and Lieutenant A. AY. Brown crossed covering 1936 miles in loins 57min. In recent months, since the wave of endeavour to conquer vast distances was reawakened, and was taken heavy toll of young and gallant lives, luck

las picked her favourites from tlio cry arms of death. Commander Byrd and three comlanions, who turned hack to sea after ictually flying around Paris ill a fog washed off the coast and had to swim isliore. Alajor do Burras, the Brazilian airnan, and three comrades were picked t p by a pasing steamer when their machine crashed during a flight from Europe to South America, and ADss Ruth Elder and George Haideman, on their way from America to Europe, were picked up by a steamer from tlieir floating plane just before it caught fire. VEIL OF AIYSTERY. The loss of the New Zealand aviators Lieuteant Aloncrieff and Captain Hood makes 31 lives sacrificed in Tittle more than a year in attempts on long distance flights over the Atlantic and Pacific. Over nearly all the deaths save fontwhich occurred in accidents when machines were taking off, the veil of mystery has descended, shutting out utterly all trace of tlieir remains and every inkling of how they met their doom. Three of the victims were women. Princess Lowenstein AVertheim and Mrs. Frances Grayson, who perished in the Atlantic, and Miss Alildred Doran. who disappeared in the Dole 1 iize flight from San Francisco to Honolulu. DEATH LIST, The list of fatalities i- non as Pillows. France: Captain St .Roman and two companoins lost during a flight, lrom France to Brazil. Captain Nungessor and toli who set out from Paris Tor New York ami have not been heard of since. Britain: Princess Lowerstein \Vortlu'ini .Liomcmti*'l-C uloneT .Minchin, and Leslie Hamilton, lost in the St. Raphael in a flight from England to .America. Canada: Captain Tnlly and Lieut. .Medealf. lost in the Sir -lohn Gatling while attempting a flight from Canada to England. United Stales: .lack Frost and Gordon Scott in the Golden Eagle, and Mildred Doran, who disappeared (luring tin* Dole Prize flight from San I'T-atieiseo to Hawaii, and \A iljiain Ervin and A. IT. EichwnTdl. who were lost while flying in the Spirit of Dallas in search of the missing machines. Paul Reillern. lost in the Port of Brunswick, while attempting a nonstop (light from Georgia. TJ.S.A to Brazil. Lieut.-Commander Davis and Lieut. AVooster. killed in the American Legion when trying to raise with a heavy fuel 10.-id for a flight from America to Franco. Two of Captain Rene Knock's companions killed when his machine crashed and caught lire when taking oil for a flight from America to France. Lloyd Borland. .1. D. Hill, and Phillip Payne, lost in the Old Glory while attempting a flight lrom America to Europe. Airs Eranees Grayson, Lieut. Oskar Omdal. Brice Goldsborough, and Fred Koehler who disappeared in an attempt to fly across the Atlantic lrom A morion. New Zealand: Lieut. .1. R. Aloncrieff and Captain G. Hood, lo=t on the (liirlit across Tasman. ,

Four successful non-stop flights from North America and Europe, and four flight from San Francisco to Hawaii, are the achievements for which this huge price in lives has been paid. No bodies were ever recovered. The only machines of which wreckage was found was the Old Glory and the machine used by Captain St. ltoman. NUNGESSOR’S FATE. For weeks the eyes of the civilised/ world were turned on the sareh made for Nnngessor and Coli. who, in May last year, were the first to pay the penalty of extreme hardihood when they flew out of a human ken in an attempt to cross the Atlantic from France to America. They made history in more ways than one. Their flight began the wave of endeavour in long distance flying that only came to a temporary lull last year after the Hole Prize race. Their fate was the first in the long and grim chapter ol the failures that has been written side by side with the story of illustrious achievements. Repoits indicating that the aviators may have reached some point in the region of Labrador persisted for more than a ngnitli after they bad left- Paris and vanished over the Atlantic. Naval tugs and coastguard craft, scoured the coast. It was even proposed that the dirigible, Los Angeles, should be sent but this was abandoned when it was pointed out that the ailship's supply of helium was not sufti- < j, ut. to last during a vovage over Labrador. A reward of £IOOO was offered U .Mr. Payiiiond Orteig for any aviator discovering Nnngessor or traces of bis machine. Nevertheless in spite of all attaintps. no trace was over found and no clue to the mystery of the late of the- airmen has ever been re voided. Within a few months, while Scblee and Hrock. Chamberlain and Levine and Byrd bad flown across the Atlantic the Ft. Paphael. the Sir John Carling and the Old Glory had shared the fate of the White Bird ill the Atlantic, and tin- Miss Doran, the Golden Eagle and the Spirit ol Dallas had been swallowed ut) in Ihe waters of the .Pacific. TASMAN’S VICTIMS. Prior u. the disappearance ol Lieut. Moiici'clf and Capt. Hood, the only 0110-r case ..f an aviator vanishing in Australasian waters was in IH2O when Capt. Stut i. an instructor m the air force at Melbourne, set out over Bass Straits in an aeroplane to search for the missing schooner. Amelia 1 • Ho was never seen again. Pep-wls that an aeroplane had been s'een among the 'elands off the north-east of 'lasmania led to the belief that bo may have landed on some out-of-the-way spot, l,„t a search failed to clear up the mysterv. and no trace of him or Ins machine was ever found.