ATLANTIC FLIGHT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 May 1939, Page 6

ATLANTIC FLIGHT

. T. H. SMITH’S ATTEMPT REPORTS OF PLANE BEING SIGHTED. SIGNALLED BY ENGLISH STATION. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 9.25 a.m.) LONDON, May 29. A plane, believed to be that of T. H. Smith, was sighted off Saint Bees in Cumberland at 6.30 p.m; It circled over Saint Bees coastguard station and, after being given a signal, turned south. An earlier message stated that a small unidentified monoplane was sighted over Londonderry (Ireland) at 3.15 p.m., speeding eastward at a high altitude.

OPINION IN AMERICA. SMITH’S CHANCES VERY POOR. NEW YORK, May 29. Airmen consider Smith’s chances are “extremely poor” because of a blinding North Atlantic snowstorm in his path. If he succeeds he should land in the British Isles late this afternoon (Eastern Standard Time). Meanwhile, there is no way of, determining his whereabouts or his fate, because the plane is not equipped with wireless. Thomas H. Smith, aged 25, of Los Angeles, took off at 4.50 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time) on Sunday last from Old Orchard, Maine, on an Atlantic flight. Friends said that he hoped to reach London in 33 hours. He flew the smallest plane manufactured in the United States, a single-motored 65 horse-power Aeronca, christened Baby Clipper.