MOTH AIRMAN OVERDUE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 489, 19 October 1928, Page 1

MOTH AIRMAN OVERDUE

Hazardous Atlantic Trip NO WORD OF HIM LAST NIGHT Wife Waits Bravely By Telephone (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Received 12.40 p.m. LONDON, Thursday. AT 10 o’clock this evening England had no news of Lieutenant-Commander H. C. MacDonald, who left Newfoundland at 1.21 p.m. on Wednesday to fly to England or Ireland. His petrol will he exhausted at 4 o’clock on Friday morning. Anxiety is growing. His wife waits anxiously by her telephone for news.

A British Official Wireless message says Lieutenant-Commander MacDonald la on the emergency list of the Royal Navy., He served in the War-; spite at Jutland, and later was appointed to a submarine. He was returned to the general section, and was subsequently engaged in the coastal motor-boat service. The route MacDonald intended to take is that followed by Sir John Alcock and Sir Whitten Brown in their pioneer flight' of 1919, from Newfoundland to the West Coast of Ireland. They covered 1,800 miles in 16 hours 12 minutes, still the fastest flight that has ever been made across the Atlantic. MacDonald was expected, if all went well, to reach the west coast of Ireland this afternoon. The British Air Ministry states that conditions for the flight have been excellent. MacDonald would have had a wind of 30 miles an hour behind him all the way across the Atlantic. With a cruising speed of 80 miles an hour, the distance of 1,600 miles from New-

foundland to Ireland might have beep accomplished in a little over 19 hours. He had a bright night, and excellent visibility. Bad weather on the Irish coast cleared up before he could have reached the coast. Before he set off ou his daring venture, MacDonald was advised by the meteorological department of the Air Ministry to follow a more northerly route than usual. If he followed that route he should have reached the coast of Galway at one o’clock this afternoon, and would be expected at Stag Lane, airdrome at London, to which he hoped to fly, about six o’clock this evening. The absence of news is now causing anxiety. Macdonald has not been sighted by any ship. Air experts declare that he has enough petrol to keep ou flying until to-morrow morning. There is a possibility that he may have landed at some isolated spot in Ireland. He has no wireless, and in the event of his having to land where there is a lack of communication he may not be heard of for some time. MacDonald’s wife at their South Kensington home waited throughout the night and day, cheery and altogether brave. The little woman sat beside the telephone, with her five-year-old son, who proudly proclaimed to callers, “My daddy’s in his airplane.” The wife has had no personal notification from her husband. She only learned that he had started from the British Broadcasting Association. She “That was to save me pain. But there, I know he is all right. He will do it.” Nevertheless, great anxiety was readable in her clear, brave eyes. “He has been most keen on this flight ever since he took to flying. He would not say much about it to his friends. He only took a small suitcase when he went to America. “He shunned publicity, and sent on the airplane in advance, in order to avoid talk. “I at once expressed disapproval, but when I found his mind was made up I expressed no opinion again.” Europe is most deeply impressed by the daring nature of the flight, in view of the smallness of the machine and the fact that MacDonald is a novice.