MISS SPOONER’S PLUCK

Hokitika Guardian, 8 December 1930, Page 3

MISS SPOONER’S PLUCK

STORY OF CRASH. | United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.] ROME, December 6. Miss Spooner and her companion aviator, Flying Officer E. Edwards, are both still at Belmonte, in Italy, where they are recovering from the effects of their experience when their plane, in which they were attempting to make a new record for'the flight from England to Capetown, went into the sea at night, a couple of miles off the coast of Italy.

Miss Spooner’s machine was found to be damaged beyond repair. The Italian authorities have sent a seaplane to Miss Spooner and Edwards, and the machine is entirely at their disposal. The Italian press publish lengthy articles praising Miss Spooner’s part in the adventure.

She was asleep and Edwards was piloting the plane at the time of the crash. Miss Spooner was thrown violently into the water, and she lost sight of the aeroplane in the darkness, but through a driving rain storm, she saw a light at the railway station, and then she managed to struggle ashore alter she had /been swimming in her heavy flying clothes for two hours. She asked that search parties he sent to look for Edwards, and she went herself in one of the rescuing boats. They found Edwards, who was almost unconscious from the loss of blood and exposure.’ He was clinging to the tail of the deeply-sub-merged aeroplane, but he insisted on remaining there to superintend the towing of the plane into harbour. MISS SPOONER’S STORY. LONDON, December 6". Miss Spooner’s own narrative of the mishap to her plane throwns new light on her adventure, and it shows that the aeroplane flew directly into the sea. Alter leaving Rome, she went to sleep. Three hours later, she says, she awoke, and she noticed that they were flying in a fog. ‘ She asked Edwards their whereabouts, and he asked her for the navigation chart. While slie was reaching for it, there was a terrific crash. A few moments previously their altimeter showed a height of 11,000 feet. She could not understand how the mistake occurred. Directly the machine struck the sea, the water entered the cabin. • She continued: “I made my exit through the window, and I began to swim. I called to Edwards, ‘Swim for it!’ He apparently did not hear me. I swam for two hours before I reached the shore.” ROME, December 6. The Italian Air Force have dismantled Miss Spooner’s machine for despatch to-Naples, whither-Fiying Officer Edwards and Miss Spooner will proceed, prior to their going to London in Edwards’ moth plane.