Party Is No Nearer To The Dead .Airmen

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 649, 29 April 1929, Page 9

Party Is No Nearer To The Dead .Airmen

At Last Water-Hole BODIES TO BE BROUGHT IN (United P.A. —By Telegraph — Copyright) Received 11 a.m. SYDNEY, To-day. NEWS has been received from Wave Hill that the ground party which is proceeding to the Kookaburra is still at the last water-hole. The Minister of Home Affairs, the Hon. C. L. Abbott, has ordered a party to set out from Newcastle Waters with caskets to recover the bodies.

THE air liner Canberra arrived at the Mascot Airdrome, Sydney, on Saturday, having returned from the search for the Southern Cross and Kookaburra. The pilot, Captain Les Holden, and his companions looked well, but had felt the cold severely. Referring to the Southern Cross, Captain Holden said he believed most of the searching airmen flew too high. Thus, while their field of vision was widened, objects on the ground became indistinct. Captain Holden expresses the opinion that the body of Mr. R. S. Hitchcock, the late Lieutenant Keith Anderson’s mechanic, will not be found near the Kookaburra, in the Northern Territory desert.

derstood, as the day, though fine, was bitterly cold on the ground, and n must have been freezing aloft. All the memb#rs of the crew are still feeling the effects of their ex perience on the mud fiat in Western Australia and cannot stand the strain of continued effort. The Southern Cross looks shipshape to the ordinary observer, but critical eyes soon discover manv things needing overhaul. Smith, however, hopes that the reconditioning will not take long, so that he and his companions can make a fresh start on their flight to England.