MISSING AIRMEN

Hokitika Guardian, 21 May 1929, Page 5

MISSING AIRMEN

NO NEWS OF MOIR. SLENDjvR MOPES. (Australian Press Association) SYDNEY, May 20. There is still no news of Moir and Owen. Hope for their safety rests on the slender prospects of their having turned back and landed somewhere on Timor Island. Their plane, which is not fitted with wireless, has only one engine. A WIDE SEARCH. ARRANGED BY GOVERNMENT. SYDNEY, .May 20. Prompt action is being taken hv the Commonwealth Government to search for -Moir and Owen. The Amalgamated Wireless Coy. has been asked to obtain the latest news from Dilli and Koepang. The Portuguese and Dutch Governments have been asked to institute a search in their territories. The Western Airways have been asked to • search the coast between Derby and Wyndham. The Defence Department thinks that Captain Grosvenor’s search to-day of the coast line between Darwin and Wyndham will he valuable. Kingsford Smith, interviewed to-day, said that if Moir and Owen struck the Australian coast at night, they would find that the coastline was so similar that they would not know which way to turn. On either side of Darwin there was thick jungle for many mile's, but the lights of Darwin would he visible for twenty-five miles; The Burns Philip Company, Ltd. received a radio from their island steamer “Malabar” to-day as follows: “ Am now within forty miles of* Ivoepnng. Have kept a strict masthead look-out, and have examined all floating objects, but have found notnmg relative to the airmen.” HAD AMPLE PETROL. SIR Tv. SMITH’S APPREHENSION. SYDNEY, Arav 20. The aviation authorities state that Moir’s plane has a petrol capacity for sixteen to twenty hours flying, and if the same speed were maintained to Darwin as was recorded from Bimn. to Koepang, they should have arrived at Darwin at 9.30 o’clock on Saturday night. Sir Keith Smith, who with the late Sir Ross Smith, landed at Darwin on their flight to Australia, expresses the opinion that Moir and Owen did a dangerous thing in replacing their propeller with one of a shorter blade, as cabled yesterday. One effect of such a change would he to “ rev” up the engine. The difference in the speed would he particularly serious in the event of their striking head winds. Sir Keith Smith says that he does not like the look of things at all. NO SIGN OF AIRMEN. (Received this day at 8 a.m.) MELBOURNE, May 21. Captain Grosvenor arrived at Wyndham from Darwin without sighting the missing THE MISSING AIRMEN. Moir and Owen, of the Australian Air Force, were Hurley’s companions on his attempted flight from Australia to England, which ended when his ’plane crashed at Athens. Moir and Owen proceeded to England, where they secured the loan of the Vellore from Vickers, .Ltd., and left Lympno on March lOtlT. On March 22nd tliov made' a forced landing at Mersa Matruk, on route for Ramleh. but the ’plane was repaired and the flight continued at tile end of Anril. The ’plane, a ‘‘Vickers-V olloie-Armstvong-Siddeloy-.Taguar,” is the highest that has ever attempted tlm flight from England to Australia, and the enterprise derived special interest from the fnflt that it is a now type of freight carrier, designed to carry an Exceptionally heavy load in proportion to power. Tt is a singlo-eiigiiicd machine, and was specially designed for fhe British Air Ministry for allocation to Imperial Airways. It had a cruising range, with soec.al fuel arrangements, of 2250 miles, and a cruising snood of 00 miles an hour. Its insurances totalled C 12.00 . The distance from Bimn to Darwin is approximately 50 miles, and from Koepang to Darwin the fivers would have to cover about 580 miles over the. Timor Sea. 5