LONE FLIER OVERDUE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 979, 23 May 1930, Page 11

LONE FLIER OVERDUE

SILENCE SINCE SHE PASSED BIMA ANXIETY FOR HER SAFETY United P.A. — By Telegraph Cosuriaht Reed. 11.5 a.m. BATAVIA, Thurs. Uneasiness is felt about the safety of Miss Amy- Johnson, who is flying to Australia and who passed over Bima at 11.30 a.m. on her way from Sourabaya to Atamboea. Since passing Bima nothing has been heard of her. The wireless station at Koepang, with telephone connection at Atamboea, was specially kept open until 11 o’clock at night, but it was reported at the closing hour that there was no news of Amy.

A LITTLE ANXIOUS GIRL FLIER EXPECTS FRIGHT OVER TIMOR SEA Reed. 2 p.m. LONDON, Thursday. In an interview with the ‘‘Daily Express’s” Sourabaya correspondent. Miss Amy Johnson’s last words were: “The less I think about this the better.” “I know awfully well the last .stretch of the Timor Sea will give me the fright of my life, but I am going on.” Before she set out for Atamboea, Dutch mechanics had the airplane In good condition and Miss Johnson carefully inspected and tested the engine and declared she was satisfied. A great crowd assembled before dawn. Miss Johnson declared she was anxious about the Timor stretch. ‘T know it is the most dangerous of the lot,” she said, “but I shall fly high and am feeling fit.”

The distance from Sourabaya to Atamboea, Timor Island, is about 800 miles and from Sourabaya to Bima, about 430 miles. Miss Johnson’s progress to date is as follows:

May s—Left5 —Left Croyden and arrived Vienna. May 6 —Arrived Constantinople. May 7—Arrived Aleppo. May S — Arrived Bagdad. May 9—Arrived Bunder Abbas. May 10—Arrived Karachi. May 11—Arrived Allahabad. May 12—Arrived Calcutta. May 13 —Arrived Insein, near Rangoon. May 14 and 15.—Belayed for repairs. May 16—Arrived at Bangkok. May 17.—Arrived Singora. May 18. —Arrived Singapore. May 19. —Arrived Tjomal, Java. May 20.—Arrived Semarang and Sourabaya, Java. May 21.—Belayed for repairs at Sourabaya. May 22.—Left Sourabaya and passed Bima.

Advice has been received by the Shell Company of New Zealand that Captain Jones, the company’s aerial representative, has gone from Melbourne to Barwin in the airplane Golden Shell, to meet Miss Johnson. He wirelessed to the commander of the Burns-Philp steamer Marella, which left Barwin on Tuesday, asking him to keep a sharp lookout beyond Kupang, Timor Island. Captain Jones was under the impression at the time that the girl flier might leave Atamboea for Barwin yesterday.