MAROONED AMID ICE AND SNOW

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 330, 16 April 1928, Page 1

MAROONED AMID ICE AND SNOW

AIRMEN CROSS ATLANTIC

Strange End to Flight

FLYERS SAFE ON REMOTE, LONELY ISLAND

ALL the world rings with the fame of the Bremen fliers, to whom goes the honour of being the first airmen to conquer the Atlantic from the east. It is only dimly and distantly, though, that these pioneers of flight will hear the echo of this thunderous acclamation, for they are away at Greenley Island, a place of ice and snow to the north of Newfoundland. The Bremen was damaged in landing there. So remote and ice-encompassed is the island, that the task of reaching the airmen will be most difficult. In the meantime, they will be cared for by the lighthouse employees there. It is a strange end to a historic flight. (United P. A. —By Telegraph — Copyright.) (Australian P.A.—United Service)

Reed. 9.5 a.m. NEW YORK, Sunday. The transatlantic flight of the German monoplane Bremen has been safely accomplished. The machine, carrying Herr Koehl (pilot), Baron Gunther von Huehnefeld and Commandant Fitzmaurice, chief of the Irish Free State Air Force, landed on Friday evening at Greenley Island, at the head of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and at the southern end of Belle Isle Straits, which separate Newfoundland from Canada and Labrador on the north. The machine was damaged, but the aviators were not Injured. Efforts are being made on behalf of the “New York Times” to secure an airplane equipped with skis in Boston or in Quebec, in order to have an effort made to reach the flyers. The outstanding fact of a day filled with reported efforts ft reach the Bremen’s flyers is that they are as completely isolated

compass variation, is believed to have been the chief contributing factor which threw the plane off her course. A side wind probably took them further north every hour after their departure. ALL AMERICA STIRRED With the possible exception of Colonel Charles Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris no aviation event has so stirred the people of : New York and of the rest of the country as the Bremen’s flight. Thousands of enthusiasts on Friday evening crowded the Mitchell Field in the expectation of the flyers’ arrival there. Such news as was available was throughout last night and to-day broadcast by wireless. The newspaper offices received thousands of messages of inquiry, and even at a late hour it was difficult to secure telephone connection with any metropolitan daily paper, owing

as if they were at the North Pole. They are not able to get out, and none is able to reach Greenley

to the continuous inflow of requests for information.

Island. The ice-cutter Montcalm, which has left the Gulf of St. Lawrence under formed steam for Point Armour, Labrador, may get there even before efforts by air can prove successful. Although one machine has started from Canada, and others may start to-morrow, the really serious effort to send a plane to Labrador now rests with Commander Byrd, who has been strongly urged to fly one of his ski-equipped planes to Greenley Island. He, however, expressed grave doubts as to his ability to land his machine there without doing it serious damage, and thus in no wise remedying the situation. The prospects of the Bremen being repaired and continuing the flight unaided are extremely small, there being neither equipment nor petrol at Greenley Island. • Efforts to charter sealing steamers at Newfoundland to make the Greenley Island trip have been unsuccessful, the skippers declaring that it involves too great a risk to trust their vessels and crews in dangerous ice-jams, and expressing scepticism as to the Montcalm’s ability to overcome the ice. The interest in the Bremen’s flight seemingly has doubled overnight, the safety of the flyers and their peculiar Isolation adding to the interest. CARED FOR AT LIGHTHOUSE A message from Ottawa says the Minister of Defence, Colonel J. L. Ralston, announced in the House of Commons that the Bremen was forced down in a snowstorm on Greenley Island, where a lighthouse is situated. He said the flyers would be well cared for by the lighthouse employees. A dispatch from Manchester New Hampshire, says the remoteness of Greenley Island is emphasised by the delay of the news of the safety of the i party in reaching the outside world, i Messengers had to traverse 20 miles ; between the Island and a wireless- 1 station either on foot or with the aid ' of a dog team over the ice. I LOST IN A FOG j Dispatches from Quebec say the ; airmen’s message describes how the Bremen wandered about in the skies, ; lost in a dense fog for four hours, be- ; fore the forced landing was made. - They said they 1-."’ o’--ined food and ; shelter. ] Calculations made in New York indicate that the distance between the ' point of departure and the landing of ; the Bremen is 2,125 miles, although 1 the machine probably tier/ further ( owing to fog. The flight occupied 34 i hours 32 minutes. Wind, and not