NO SIGN OF THE AIRMEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 670, 23 May 1929, Page 9

NO SIGN OF THE AIRMEN

DID NOT MAKE LANDING ON KOEPANG FATE REMAINS MYSTERY (United P.A. —By Telegraph — Copyright) SYDNEY, Wednesday. The fate of Flying-Officer James Moir and Flying-Officer Harold Owen is still a mystery. The two airmen have not been seen since Saturday morning, when they passed over Koepang, Timor Island, from Bima, Dutch East Indies, on the last stage of their flight from England to Darwin. A telegram from Weltevreden, Batavia, says the resident officer at Koepang confirms the statement that Moir and Owen did not land there. Wing-Commander L. J. Wackett held a radio telephonic conversation from Sydney last evening with Wing-Com-mander Smet, officer in charge of the Air Force station at Sourabaya, Java. The conversation was arranged by Amalagamated Wireless, Ltd. It was the first time wireless telephony had been employed by officials of the two nations to discuss a matter of urgent national importance. The Java officer told Wing-Com-mander Wackett that Moir and Owen carried one gallon of water when they left Bima on Saturday, also some kind of rubber life-preserving equipment. He was not sure whether the latter was a collapsible boat. The airmen had sufficient petrol for a 24-hour flight. Wing-Commander Smet said definitely that they had not landed at Atamboea, Timor Island.