LOST PLANE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 February 1941, Page 7

LOST PLANE

POSSIBLE CONNECTION WITH RECENT MESSAGE.

AUCKLAND RESIDENT'S HOPES. The possibility of there being some significance in the message borne by a pigeon which arrived exhausted at Masterton on Sunday, January 25, stating that an aeroplane was down on Kapiti Island, was mentioned by Mr. H. Smith. Grange Road, Mount Eden, whose son. Flight Sergeant Sheldon Benton Smith, was one of three Royal New Zealand Air Force members comprising the crew of a machcine which disappeared in the New Plymouth district on September 30 last. The message was written in pencil on a piece of white paper bag, wrapped in protective material and attached to the pigeon's leg by a rubber band. "On the "day my son was lost, he left home with some sausage rolls given him by his mother in a white paper bag," said Mr. Smith. "He also had some sandwiches in greaseproof paper round which was a rubber band." It is felt by Mr. Smith that a thorough investigation of the message is warranted.

With Flight Sergeant Smith in the machine were Flying Officer Harry Nalder Major and Corporal Raymond Bernard Smith. The signature on the bottom of the message is either F. L. James or E. L. Jones. Mr. Smith mentioned the possibility of the signature being that of a person who had found the machine on the island. However, it seems unlikely that anyone finding the aircraft would not have connnunicaled the fact to one or other of the residents on Kapiti Island, who come regularly to the mainland. The missing aircraft is an Airspeed Oxford monoplane, which was on its way from Auckland to Ohakea. It was last seen flying in heavy mist and rain near the coast, proceeding south in me direction of the While Cliffs at Pukearuhe. No trace of the machine or the men has so far been found, and the Air Department assumed that it fell into the sea.