MYSTERIOUS AEROPLANE RELIC.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 40014, 24 October 1929, Page 3

MYSTERIOUS AEROPLANE RELIC.

PORTION OF WING FOUND OFF SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

AfONIORiTEFF AND HOOD FLIGHT RECALLED. Adelaide, October 22. A fisherman named Taylor found a portion of an aeroplane wing on the rocks near Cape Banks light house (in the Mount Gambier district). Speculation is rife as to whether it formed part of the machine in which Hood and Moncrieff attempted their flight across the' Tasman to New Zealand in January, 1928.

The direction of the ocean currents along the south coast is from west to east.

The two New Zealand airmen, Lieut. Monicrieff (pilot) and Capt. Hood set out flrom -Sydney on Tuesday, January 19th, 1928, at 2.44 a.in. (5.14 n.m. N.Z. Summer Time) (o fly to the (Dominion in flic Ryan monoplane. Aotea-roo, intending to land at Treiithain. Tt was thought that the flight would occupy fifteen, or at the most eighteen hours, and in the evening thereAvas much tense expectancy throughout the country, this to anxiety as the darkness closed in after nine o’clock and the whereabouts of the ’plane could not. be definitely traced. Reports bad been coming in, from shortly after sunset that the ’plane had been either seen or heard at various places along the coast, and even after dark the rumours persisted, some of them suggesting that the fliers had come inland. The places from which reports were received included localities as widely separated as Foxton and the Marlborough Sounds. ■ The fate of the Aoten-ron remained a, mystery, however, and (lie plucky airmen who had attempted the first crossing of the Tasman (later accomplished by the . Southern Cross) were never heard of again.