ATLANTIC FLY

Hokitika Guardian, 19 October 1928, Page 5

ATLANTIC FLY

MACDONALD’S EXPERIENCE,

(United Press Association—By Electric T elegraph—Copy ngnt). LONDON, October 17.

The Atlantic flyer, MacDonald, learned to fly only recently, and, after only eight hours’ solo flying, he toured France, Italy, Egypt, Arabia, Palestine and Iraq in a. Moth plane.. When returning, he made a forced landing among. a party of Arabs, and he was made a prisoner, until he managed to send a message to an Italian armoured car force.

MacDonald is a skilled naviagtor, and lie is using the aeroplane in which Broad established his record endurance flight of twenty-four hours recently. It weighs eight hundred pounds. MacDonald is extremely popular in the navy, where his courage is acknowledged. Vain efforts were made to dissuade him from his project.

FLYER’S WIFE ANXIOUS

LONDON, October 18

“ I did not know that my husband had started until I heard the news by wireless,” said Mrs MacDonald, the W*.e of the Atlantic flyer. Mr MacDonald had been waiting anxiously all night beside the telephone at her home at Queen’s Gate, Kensington. She added: “I did not thifik that the' weather conditions were good enough. The news came as a great surprise. Of course, I have every confidence in my husband’s ski) l, but it is a big thing. lam terribly anxious, and I cannot help thinking of him in that tiny machine over the vast Atlantic. I shall just sit here waiting until news comes.”

NO NEWS OF MACDONALD

•NEW YORK, October 18, It is reported from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, that nothing had been heard from Commander MacDonald up till late last night on his trans-Atlan-tic flight.

ANOTHER ATLANTIC FLIGHT.

NEW YORK, October 18

A message from Newcastle, Pennsylvania, states: Capt. Ronald Smith a world war aviator with the British army, who is employed as an aviator instructor here, has announced his acceptance of an offer to serve as copilot for the Bellanca plane “ Roma ’■ on its projected trans-Atlantic flight, which is to.start ■within ten days.

MACDONALD MISSING. (Received this day at 9.25. a.m.) LONDON, October 18. There was no news of MacDonald at two o’clock this afternoon. The weather was south-west in Ireland. There was a bad morning with a southipest gale and poor visibility, but the conditions were greatly improved this afternoon. On the contrary there was a bright morning in the south of England but the wind changed round to a south-west gale in the afternoon and rain squalls and much mist.

NO SIGN OF AIRMAN

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received this day at 11.25. a.in.) RUGBY, Oct. 18.

Mr MacDonald, who is in the emergency list of the Royal Navy served in the Warspite at Jutland and latei was appointed to a submarine. He was returned to the general section and was subsequently' engaged in coastal motor boat service. There Isas yet no news of him. The Air Ministry states that the conditions for the flight have been excellent. MacDonald would have had a 'wind of thirty miles an hour behind him all the way across the Atlantic, with a cruising speed of eighty miles an hour and the distance of sixteen hundred miles from Newfoundland to Ireland, might have been accomplished in little over nineteen hours. He had a bright night ant! excellent visibility. Bad weather on the Irish coast cleared up before he could have reached the coast. MacDonald was advised by the Meteorological Department to follow a more northerly'.route than usual. If he followed that route he should have reached the coast of Galway at one o’clock this afternoon, and would be expected at Stag Lane Aerodrome, at London, to which he hoped to fly by about six o’clock this evening.

The absence of news is now causing anxiety. MacDonald was not sighted by any ships. Air experts declare lie has enough petrol to keep on flying until tomorrow morning. There is a possibility that he may have landed at some isolated spot in Ireland. He has no wireless and in the event of his having to land where there is a lack of communication, he may not be heard of for some time.

HIS WIFE’S ANXIETY. LONDON, October 18

MacDonald’s wife, living at a South Kensington home, waited throughout the night and day, a cheery and altogether brave woman, beside the telephone with her five-year-okl son, who proudly proclaimed to callers: “My Daddy’s in an aeroplane.” His wife had no personel notification ifrom her husband and only learned he had started through the British Broadcasting Coy’s broadcast, “that was to save me pain, but there, 1 know he. ip all right and that he will do it.” Nevertheless great anxiety could be read in her clear blue eyes. He has -been most keen on this flight evei since he took up flying. He would not 'say much about it to friends and only took a smal suitcase when he went to America, He shunned publicity and

sent on the aeroplane in advance in order to avoid talk. I ope® expiessed disapproval, hut when 1 found his mind made up, I did not express an opinion again.” Europe is most deeply impressed by the daring of the flight, in view of the fact that MacDonald is a novice at fiving and of the. smallness of the machine.

anxiety grhaving. LONDON, Oct. 18. England had received no news of MacDonald at 10 o’clock this morning. His petrol will he exhausted at four on Friday morning. Anxiety is growing.