TRANS-ATLANTIC

Hokitika Guardian, 14 September 1932, Page 5

TRANS-ATLANTIC

AMERICA TO ROME DOCTOR, NURSE AND PILOT. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received this day at 9.25 a m) NEW YORK, September 13. Doctor Leon Pisculli, of Yankens, New York, commander of the expedition, William Ulbrich of Mineola, New York, pilot, and Miss Edna Newcomer, aged twenty-eight of Williamsport, Penns, a nurse, and a paracmlte jumper, hopped off this morning on an attempted non-stop flight to Rome in a plane “American Nurse,” formerly the one in which Herndon and Panghorn flew around the world, but it has been refurnished and renamed. Miss Newcomer intends to step out of the plane with a parachute when over Florence, Italy, as a tribute to Florence Nightingale. Dr. Pisculli said that he would make medical observations as to the effect of the trans-Atlantic flight on the occupants, including the doctor’s pet woodchuck which is being taken along to detect carbon monoxide, the doctor believing that some trans-Atlantic fliers have been lost through this poison. The weather was ideal when the plane took oft. An object of the flight, Dr. Pisculli said, was to encourage nurses and physicians to take up flying and parachute jumping, in order to be prepared for quick emergency work in the event of floods and other disasters. The plane carries no radio.