AEROPLANE TRAGEDIES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5259, 2 April 1928, Page 3

AEROPLANE TRAGEDIES.

LONG DISTANCE FLIGHTS. THEIR TOLL OF LIFE. The disappearance of Captain Hinche'liffei and his companion, Miss Elsie Mackay, has had its parallels in the past. Other airmen have u'eapr peared after forced descents on land and sea, but there have been many tragedies where mysterious pages have been written in, the history of aviation. The epic case of the Australian, Harry Hawker, and l his companion, Lieutenant Grieve, who, on their attempt to fly across the Atlantic, werd a week overdue when they tu'rtned up, having been picked up by a passing steamer, is the classic instance of the justification of faith in the ultimate triumph of good luck against fate. Hawker, who had Lieutenant Grieve as his navigator, was only 100 miles off achieving the honour of first crossing the North Atlantic when he was. forced down into the sea. He had taken off from. Newfoundland on May 18. 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 silence o£ fate seemed to have engulfed them. A search by vessels proving fruitless, hope had almost been given up when word came from a coastguard at tihe North' of Scotland that Hawker and Grieve had been, rescued by the Danish steamer Mary. A destroyer was sent out and the airmen were takqn from the Mary and landed at Thuiiso, Scotland. ENGINE FAILED. It transpired that when 1350 miles had been covered and the aeroplane was off the coast of Ireland rhe water circulation of the engine was found to have stopped. This meant that they would nave to descend. They cruised for two hours over the surface until the Mary was sighted, and they were taken on board. A remarkable reception was accorded the aviators for their glorious failure .when they arrived in London. They were decorated by the K’.ng with the Air Force Cross. The wreckage of their machine an( ' the mails that it carried were afterwards picked up by a steamer. BRITAIN FIRST. A month later Britain secured the honour of being first in the air ove l the Atlantic, when Captain J. Aleock and Lieutenant A. W. Brown crossed', covering 1936 miles in 15 hours 57 minutes. In recent months, since the wave' or endeavour to conquer vast distances was reawakened', and. has taken a heavy toll of young a,nd gallant lives, luck has picked her favourites from the very arms of death. Commander Byrd and! three companions, who turned back to sea after actually flying around Paris in a fog, crashed off the coast and had' swim ashore.

Major de, Barros, tihe Brazilian allman, and thre,e comrades were pickedi up by a passing steamer when their machine crashed during a flight from Europe to South, America, and Miss Ruth Elder and George Haldeman, on their way from America, to Europe, were, picked up by a steamer from their floating plane just before it caught fire.

VEIL OF MYSTERY. The loss of the New Zealand aviators, Lieutenant Moncrieff and Captain Hood, makes 31 lives sacrificed in little more than a year in attempts on long-distance flights over tihe Atlantic and the pacific.

Ovqr nearly a(Il the deaths, save four, which occurred in accidents, when machines were taking off, the veil of mystery has descended, shutting out utterly all trace of their remains and every inkling o£ how they met their doom; Three of the victims were wojmen. Princess Lowenstein and Mrg Frances Grayson who perished in the Atlantic, and Miss Mildren Doran, who disappeared during the Dole Prize flight from San Francisco to 'Honolulu. DEATH LIST. The list of fatalities is now -as follows :— France: Captain, St; R'oman anrt two companions lost duriing a fight frpm France to Brazil. Captain Nungessor and Coli, who set out from Paris for New York, and have not been 'heard of since.

Britain : Princess, Lowenstein thei.m, Lieutenant-Colonel Minclaen, and Leslie; Hamilton, lost in. the fit. Raphael in a flight from England t° America. Canada : Captain Tuljy and LiemtMedlcalf, lost in the Sir John Gaining while attempting a fight from Canada to England. United' States : Jack Frost and Gordon Scott in the Golden. Eagle, and. Miss Mildren Doran, J. A. Pedlar; and Lieut. V. Knope in, the Miss Doran, who disappeared' during, the Dole Prize flight from San Francisco to Hawaii, and William. Er>vin and. A. H. Eichwalcjt,' who Were Jost while flying in tliei Spirit of Dallas m search of the missing niachtoes. Pauli Redfern, lost in the Port of Brunswick, white attempting a nonstop flight from Georgia, [U.S.A., to Brazil. Lieut. 1 Comm under Dayisi and Lieut. Wooster, killed in. the 'American Le gion when trying to rise with a heavy fuel load for fight from America to France.

Two of Captain Re.ne Fonck’s coinpanions killed when 2iis machine cras'hed and caught fire -when taking off for a flight from .[America to France. Lloyd Bertaud, J. D. •Hill., and Phillip Payne lost in the Ola Story while attempting a flight from. At merich to Europe. Mrs Frances Grayson, Uiem Oskar Omfial, Bice Golds borough, an A Pred Koehler, who disappeared in > an atr tempt to fly across the Atlantic f ronl America.

New Zealand : Lieut. J. R« [M'Onci ‘ iefE and Captain G. Hood, /lost on flife across Tasman.

Four successful noflr-sfbp’ pighti 3

from North America and Europe,, and! four flights 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 were the Old Glory and the machine uEed by Captain St. Roman. NUNGRESSOR’S FATE.

For weeks the eyes, of the civilised world were turned' on the search made for Nungepsor and- Coli, who, in May last year, were the first to pay the penalty of extreme hardihood when they flew out of human ken in an attempt to cross the Atlantic from France to America.

They made history in more ways than one. Their flight began thq wave of endeavour in long distance flying that only came to a temporary lull last year after the Dole Prize race. Their fate was the first in the long and gijim chapter of the failures that that has. been written side by side with the story of illustrious achievements. Reports indicating that the aviators may have reached some point in the region, of Labrador pedsisted for more than a month 1 after they had left Paris and vanished over the Atlantic. ,

Naval tugs and coastguard craft scoured the coast. It was even proposed that the tjirig'ble Los Angeles should be sent, but this was abandoned when it was. pointed out that the airship’s supply of helium was not sufficient to last during a voyage over Labrador. A reward of .UOO0 1 was offered by Mr Raymond Orteig for any aviator discovering Nungessor 1 or traces of his mach'ne. Neveiy the les|s, in spite of all attempts, no trace was ever found and no clue to the mystery of the fate of the airmen has ever been revealed. Withing a few months, while Sehlee and Brock, Chamberlain and Levine ahd Byrd had! flown across thq Atlantic, the St. Raphael, the Sir John Carling, and the Old Glory had shared then fate of the White Bird, in the Atlantic and the M : ss> Doran, the Golden Eagle, and the Spirit of Dallas had been swallowed up ip the wastes of the Pacific. TASMAN’S VICTIMS. Prior to the disappearance of Lieut. Moncrieff and Captain Hood the only other case of an aviator vanishing in Australian and New Zealand waters was in, 1920, when Captain Stutt, an instructor in the air force at Melbourne, set out over Bass Straits in an aeroplane to search for; the missing schooner Amelie J. He was nqver seen again. Reports that an aeroplane had been seen among the islands off the north;-east of Tasmania led to the belief that he may have landed on some out-of-the-way spot, but a search failed' to clear up the ■mystery, and no ti]ace of him or ,hi& machine was ever found.