STILL NO NEWS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 May 1942, Page 4

STILL NO NEWS

OF MISSING UNION AIRWAVS PLANE INTENSIVE SEARCH, CONTINUED IN NELSON AREA. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. An intensive search for the missing Union Airways plane was continued today by land and sea, with particular attention to the Nelson area, from near which the last report from the aircraft was received. Facilities provided for those engaged in the search include radio and pigeons. Visibility is not good and this is hampering operations badly. Known as the Kereru (wood-pigeon), the missing aircraft is one of the original fleet of Lockheeds brought to New Zealand in 1936 to operate the commercial air services, and it has flown on all routes. It is twin-engined, powered by Pratt and Whitney Wasp Junior engines, each of 450 h.p. It has accommodation for 10 passengers and two pilots. Commander Johnston has been in the service of Union Airways tor some years, and Second Officer Smillie for 2i years. Mr W. H. Moore is chief draughtsman in New Zealand of the Vacuum Oil Company Pty., Ltd., and was travelling to Nelson on business. He has been with the company four years, and was also an instructor at the Wellington Technical College. A qualified civil engineer, he is aged 34 and has a wife and a three-year-old daughter. Miss Fell is employed in the Army Department and, receiving short leave, left for Nelson to spend the time at her home. The address of Miss Farrar is not yet known. She stayed overnight, before leaving for Nelson, at a Wellington private hotel and booked her seat from there by telephone. There were reports of her having come from Canterbury and from Hamilton, but inquiries last night in Christchurch and in Hamilton did not establish her address. AN EXCELLENT RECORD. Up to March 31, 1942, planes operated by Union Airways, Ltd., had flown 3,919,315 miles without mishap involving injury to the 153,736 passengers carried on all routes since the inception of the service. One of their aircraft, the Kotare ZK—-AFC, crashed soon after taking off from Mangere Aerodrome, Auckland, on May 10, 1938. Commander C. M. Duthie, the chief pilot, and Second Officer W. J. Peel were killed. There were no passengers. Some mail was lost, the craft catching fire when it crashed.