EMPIRE AIR MAIL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 July 1938, Page 7

EMPIRE AIR MAIL

4 BITTER COMPLAINTS MADE BY PASSENGERS DELAYS AND DISCOMFORTS AT DARWIN ' ARRANGEMENTS CRITICISED SYDNEY, July 4. Passengers who arrived at Darwin last night in the Empire flying-boat Challenger complain bitterly of the arrangements for handling passengers on arrival in Australia. Passengers were informed they would be unable to leave the vessel until all Customs and medical formalities had been completed. They spent an uncomfortable two hours in the over-heated cabin which was reeking with ether as a result of the vaccinating of three passengers. A choppy sea added to their discomfort. Only two ancient open launches were available to convey the passengers ashore, and most of them became wet with spray. They then had to wait till darkness in a strong wind outside the Customs shed while each was admitted singly and examined, after which a half-mile walk to waiting cars followed. It was three hours after arrival before the last passenger reached his hotel. The Royal Dutch Airlines’ machine, which left Amsterdam two days after the Challenger left Southampton, has progressed according to schedule and will overtake the Challenger at Darwin today, arriving at Sydney early tomorrow afternoon. The Challenger arrives tomorrow evening. MINISTER ANGRY URGENT CALL FOR REPORT CANBERRA, July 4. The Minister of Defence, Mr H. V. C. Thorby, is extremely angry about the complaints made by the Challenger’s passengers, and has called for an urgent explanation. He added that, if there has been mismanagement of the kind alleged, “I shall see that the maximum penalty is imposed irrespective of persons.”