NON-STOP FLIGHT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 May 1939, Page 5

NON-STOP FLIGHT

FIRST ACROSS NORTH ATLANTIC RUSSIAN PLANE CRASHES IN CANADA. PILOT AND NAVIGATOR INJURED. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. OTTAWA, April 29. The Soviet plane, Moscow, attempting to fly non-stop to New York, crashed on the barren island of Miscou in the Gulf of St Lawrence within 700 miles of the goal. . . The pilot, General Kokkinski, received a broken wrist, and his companion and navigator, Major Mikhail Gordienko, was severely bruised. Both wings were snorn from the plane. The flyers circled for six hours over the fog-bound Gulf of St Lawrence seeking a position to fuel, became exhausted and made a forced landing in a marsh. Despite their injuries, both stood guard over the wreckage throughout the night, refusing refuge in the village of Miscou. A New York message states that congratulations to the flyers on the first nonstop flight across the north Atlantic from Russia have been extended by the civil aeronautic authorities. REFUSAL TO LEAVE PLANE. (Received This Day, 9.10 a.m.) NEW YORK. April 30. A message from Miscou Island states that two rescue planes have arrived. They found that General Kokkinski’s injuries were only bruises. The Soviet airmen refused to leave their plane to go to New York, pending orders, and spent a second night on the Island.