THE MISSING AIRMEN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3741, 14 January 1928, Page 3

THE MISSING AIRMEN.

SEARCH OH SEA AND LAND. No trace of the missing airmen has been reported by those who have been searching at localities where the air ship was reported to Lave been seen. The search has been widespread and systematic by air, sea and land. Two aeroplanes, in charge of experienced flying officers, are working from Trcntham and Blenheim respectively. Each made a long flight and covered very wide and overlapping areas, covering Cook Strait and its approaches, the West Coast as far north as Foxtori, and the Tararua and Rimutaka ranges, southward from Masterton to Palliser Bay, and all the contiguous country. The tug Toia has searched the sea coast as far as Cape Egmont, and is now working off shore. H.M.S. Dunedin left Auckland on Thursday, and was followed by H.M.S. Diomede. They will work down the Tasman Sea from Cape Maria Van Deimen, and will thoroughly.'search a wide area from the coast to the westward as they come south. Large search parties, organised by the Tararua Tramping Club, will comb the wild, rugged fastnesses of the ranges over a wide area between the Wairarapa and the West Coast. All that is humanly posi sible .is being done to find the airmen if they are alive or some trace of them that will give a clue to their fate. The closest watch is being maintained at all outlying postal or telephone offices' along the west coasts of both islands for news%f the missing men. CAPTAIN KNIGHT’S VIEW. The following message was reee--ived from,'Captain Knight, from Sydney, by.Mr A. McNicol on Thursday:— “All experts assure me that hope must not be abandoned for several days yet, for they are either in the mountainous country or, if they landed in the sea, their tanks were sufficiently empty to keep them afloat. They had sufficient chocolate and water for several days.”

MAJOR DE HAVILAND’S , OPINION. Sydney, January 12. Major de Haviland, who inspected the Aotea-Roa at Melbourne, said that unless the machine developed defects on the journey, he consid-. ered it equal to the task of crossing the Tasman. It impressed him as being most suitable for the flight, and givfen ordinary lack he could discover no reason why it had been forced to descend on the sea and for some house, particularly if they made a good landing, it should float if the airmen were able to empty their petrol tanks. Even , if the machine crashed into the sea and the wings were broken, it should float for two or three hours. MORE SECURE AERIAL TRANSPORT. Sydney, January 11. Speaking at the annual dinner of the Motor Traders’ Association, Captain Hughes, president of the Aero Club of New South Wales, said he hoped the New Zealand flight would never be,attempted again until aerial transport had reached the secure stage of motor transport to-day. The great pioneering flight just concluded finished the pioneering stage, and aviation was now passing beyond the stage when flight of that kind was a matter for headlines. , AMPHIBIAN NEEDED, SAYS SIR KEITH SMITH. Melbourne, January 12. Sir Keith Smith, referring to the flight, expressed himself as more than ever convinced that such a flight should not have' been undertaken except in an amphibian machine. He says that, although it was an all-metal machine, it did not necessarily mean that it would sink. Towards the end of the flight the petrol tanks would be at least threequarters empty and that would mean considerable buoyancy. There was a possibility that the machine might still be found floating.

REPLY TO PRIME MINISTER. STATEMENT BY MR. MeNICOL. The statement of the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. J. 0. Coates), in a speech at Whangarei, that when he had discussed their plans with the airmen, he had said that he thought that they were ill-prepared for thedr flight formed the subject of some discussion yesterday. Mr A. McNicol, one of the trustees of the Tasman Flight Fund, said he thought it was somewhat unfair to the aviators and those most closely associated with the venture , to say that their plans were ill-prepared. “To my certain knowledge,” said Mr McNicol, “the only conversation held by Mir Coates with the aviators was a few minutes.before they sailed for Sydney on December 9th, and from that short time it was impossible for him to form any fair idea of the preparations. “It is only fair to Mr Coates to say that he never personally approved of the flight, nor was the Government officially connected with it in any way. At the same time Mr Coates did not discuss the plans of the expedition with the aviators, or certainly not to such an extent as to justify his statement.

“In connection with the flight, (he people require to realise that Monerieff had lived for it for many years. It had always been his passion since he had earned his wings to fly the Tasman, and he has studied every point in connection with it. If he is safe, as we all hope ho is, he will be the Lindberg of New Zealand. Captain Hood is also a qualified airman and was fully recommended by the Director of Air Services while Captain Knight had also exercised considerable foresight in connection with the expedition. So far as could be judged the machine had every safety appliance and was in every way capable of the venture. 1 ’ > “There is also one important point to remember, and on this Mrs Moncrieff and Mrs Hood place very great reliance. Both Moncrieff and Hood are very capable men, of war experience, and are not likely to lose their heads when in difficulty. If they found themselves in a tight corner they had the courage and resource to face it, and it was with this knowledge of their capabilities that the backers supported them in the venture. SEARCH FOR MISSING MEN. “The question has been raised as to Avhether the Government has done sufficient to assist the men to find the shores of this country. At the outset the Government had been asked to lend' the assistance of the Departments in connection with certain features of .the flight, and this had been done. The Australian authorities had also given their astance. The Government had been asked to have a warship patrolling the coast, and Had promised that this would be done if a ship were available. Unfortunately, the date of the flight did not fit in with the movements of the fleet. The promoters are exceedingly sorry that the country should be put to the expense of the search that is now taking place but the trustees are of the opinion that a'great deal of this money might have been saved had two aeroplanes been sent out to scout the coast and show the men the way into the country, i “I. may add that the Australian authorities supervised the erection and assembly of the machine, and apparently thought that it was in every way fit for the flight. The men before I they left, expressed their very deep appreciation of the services that had been rendered, and were more than satisfied with their chances.” Statements from various quarters still arrive to the effect that the aeroplane was seen hovering over various parts of the southern Wellinjgton district. The master of the steamer “Kaiwarra” in a wireless message to the Sydney “Sun” newspaper reiterates the statement he saw the aeroplane at 11 o’clock on Tuesday night. The machine was then circling in the vicinity of Porirua. It was in sight for three or four minutes, then disappeared behind a cloud, flying eastward. The Kaiwarra at this time was near the Brothers’ light in Cook Strait; Parties are out scouring the Tararua and Rimutako ranges. H.M.S. Dunedin and Diomede and the tug Toia and coastal vessels are searching on zig-zag courses along the coast, but although risibility has been good, no sign of the missing ’plane has been sighted.

TOLL OF.OCEAN FLIGHTS, BAD RECORD OF LAST YEAR. Against the successful transocean flights must be set a large number of failures, many attended with serious loss of life, especially during 1927. Following , is a list of the major undertakings which have come to grief:— Harry G. Hawken and Lieut.Commander Mackenzie Grieve attempted a non-stop transatlantic flight from Newfoundland to Ireland on May 18, 1919. They flew 1225 miles before they were forced to alight in the sea 850 miles from Ireland. The fliers were not heard of for six days, and were given up for lost, but were pidked up by a Danish steamer and safely landed. Captain John Rodgers, with a crew of four men in a large machine, attempted a non-stop flight from San Francisco to Hawaii in 1925. He came down en route, and after being missing for several days was picked up by a submarine. DISASTERS. IN THE ATLANTIC. Captain de Saint-Roman, with Commander Mouneyres, left Marseilles on April 17, 1927, in a Farman seaplane for Buenos Aires. At Casablanca the floats of the machine were replaced with wheels. The French Department of Aeronautics objected to tliis, and ordered the flight to be abandoned, but the 'two officers persisted. They set off from Saint-Louis, Senegal, on May 5, for Pemambucco, Brazil, taking a mechanic with them. Nothing more was heard until June 20, when fragments of a machine believed to be theirs were washed up on the Brazilian coast. Captain Nungesser, the famous French ace, and M. Coli, attempted a westward transatlantic flight, leaving Le Bourget early on May 8, 1927. With 16J hours of daylight they hoped to make a landfall at Cape Race, Newfoundland, and follow the coast to New York. Their machine was an aeroplane with a watertight fuselage. Fog and storms were afterwards reported over the Atlantic, and in spite of many days’ search both at sea and in the interior of Newfoundland and the mainland, no trace of the machine was found. The £7OOO prize offered by Mr.

Dole for an air race from Oakland, California, to Hawaii, led to the loss, last year, of three machines and the lives of six men and one woman. Five machines set out, but one came early to grief. The Golden Eagle, with Messrs Jack Frost, and'Gordon Scott, and the Miss Doran, with Miss Mildred Doran and Messrs J. A. Pedler and Y. R. Knope, were lost. A third machine containing Messrs W. 0. Erwin and A. H. Eichwaldt, which flew from Oakland two days later, in search of the missing planes, was never heard of again. Two competing machines reached their destination. PATE OF A PRINCESS. Paul Redfern left Georgia, Brunswick, on August 25th, 1927, in the plane Port of Brunswick, in an attempt to fly to Brazil. He was last seen by a Norwegian steamer on August 26th within 165 miles of the coast of South America, when he was heading towards the mainland of Venezuela. Captain Leslie Hamilton, Lieut.Colonel Minchin and Princess Low-enstein-Wertheim left Wiltshire on September Ist, 1927, in the monoplane St. Raphael to fly to Ottawa. The attempt at the traps-Atlantic flight from east to west, previously Accomplished only by the dirigible R 34, in 1919, failed, and the aviators and their machine were never found. Captain Terry Tully and Lieut. James Metcalf set out on a flight from London, Ontario, to London, England, in the monoplane Sir John Carling, on September 7th, 1927. The machine was not heard of after passing Harbour Grace, Newfoundland. Mr Lloyd Bertrand, Mr James de )Vitt Hill, and Mi- Philip Payne, a New York journalist, left Maine on September 6th, 1927, in tihe monoplane Old i Glory, bound for Rome. The steamer Kyle found the wreckage of the machine 650 miles off Newfoundland, but the men were never found. Miss Ruth Elder and Captain George Haldermann, who left New. York for Paris on October 11th, 1927, in the American Girl, were forced down about 600 miles from the Azores. Both aviators were picked up by the Dutch steamer Barendrecht while their plane was burning. The German seaplane D 1220, which was being used for a flight across the Atlantic to New York, came down off the Azores on November 13th, 1927. The airmen jumped into the sea and were picked up by a motor-boat. Mrs Frances Grayson, Lieut. Oscar Omdal, rof the Norwegian Navy, the pilot, Mr Brice Goldsborough, navigation and radio engineer, and Mr Fred Koehler, left New York in the aeroplane Dawn on December 23rd, 1927, for Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, from where it was intended to attempt a flight across the Atlantic. They were not heard of again, but a tramp steamer reported hearing the sound of an aeroplane engine, followed by a splash.