BODIES TO BE BROUGHT IN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 653, 3 May 1929, Page 1

BODIES TO BE BROUGHT IN

Two Gallant Airmen memorial will be erected Tragedy of Untested Compass (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) Received 9.30 a.m. SYDNEY, To-day. IT has now been disclosed that the compass with which Lieutenant Keith Anderson and Mr. R. S. Hitchcock were taken so far out of their course on the ill-fated Kookaburra flight was fitted into the plane only the day before it left Richmond. The compass was that used by Captain W. N. Lancaster in his flight from England in the Red Rose with Mrs. Keith Miller, and it had not been used or tested since then.

The Prime Minister. Mr. Bruce, announced yesterday that the Federal Government intends to adhere to its original intention of having the bodies of Lieutenant Anderson and Mr. Hitchcock brought back to civilisation. An overland party is to be sent to the scene from Darwin with two caskets, which will be borne by camels. The bodies will be exhumed and taken to Wave Hill, where they mill be given suitable burial. Headstones are also to be erected over the graves. It is also intended to have a memorial erected at the Alice Springs airdrome, whence the gallant airmen took off on the final stage of their ill-fated fight. The crews of four Air Force machines are remaining at their bases vith the object of co-operating with the overland party. Commodore R. Williams, chief of the Air Force, says a tragic aspect of the loss of the Kookaburra is that after Anderson and Hitchcock had repaired their engiue they were apparently overtaken by thirst before they could fly the airplane into the air again. The Government has already spent £20,000 on the search operations.