Paris Acclaims Flyers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 691, 17 June 1929, Page 9

Paris Acclaims Flyers

PLANE LANDS AT LE BOURGET France’s Atlantic Pioneers SAW THE OCEAN ONLY THREE TIMES (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) l Australian and N.Z. Press Association J (United Service) Received 11.5 a.m. PARIS, Sunday. REACHING the airdrome at Le Bourget, the Yellow Bird, the first French airplane to fly across the Atlantic, has completed its long flight from Old Orchard, Maine.

Crowds of anxious people gathered at Le Bourget on Saturday to await the coming of the Yellow Bird. Others congregated round the offices of the newspapers, where progress reports were posted. After hours of increasing anxiety the news of the landing in Spain was received with great enthusiasm for the completion of the first French trans-Atlantic flight. The Yellow Bird took off from Commas in Spain to complete the journe) to Paris, but it landed later at Minizan, short of petrol. The machine was at first unable to leave Comillas with its heavy load because of the rough ground. The aviators say they saw the sea only thrice crossing the Atlantic. It • did not seem as if they were crossing the ocean at all. LUCKY STOWAWAY

A stowaway, Arthur Schreiber, aged 22, crossed the Atlantic with the airmen.

When the plane landed at Santander, Spain, M. Jean Assolant, the pilot said the weight of the stowaway, whose presence was not discovered until the Yellow Bird had been for some time in the air, necessitated the throwing overboard of a quantity of petrol as the machine could not rise sufficiently. Later they also jettisoned the starter. M. Armona Lotti, the co-pilot, was

not disposed to blame Schreiber for the failure to reach Le Bourget. He blamed the elements, which were bad for two-thirds of the way, notably on the last section of the flight, when the flyers were battling with a violent gale for four hours. This forced the Yellow Bird to the south. 1

The speed averaged was 112 miles an hour, the fastest since Alcock’s 118 miles an hour. NOT WILD WITH HIM

The Yellow Bird landed on the beach near Comilles. The fuel was practically exhausted and the radiator almost dry. M. Assolant, unlike M. Lotti, did blame the extra weight of the stowaway for the failure to reach Paris. Nevertheless, when the monoplane landed he jumped out good-humour-edly and presented the young man to the chering crowd as “our unexpected guest.” The aviators were not angry with the youth and refused to hand him over to the police. M. Lotti said Schreiber had shared their risks and was one of them. They intended to make sure /he saw Paris and then would ship him'home. He had nerve and they were proud of him.

M. Lotti, in a wirelessed message to the United States, said the crossing was had. For at least two-thirds of the distance it was hampered by clouds, wind and rain.