ENDS IN DISASTER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVII, Issue 10888, 7 April 1927, Page 5

ENDS IN DISASTER

DI PINEDO'S FLIGHT.

ITALIAN AIRMAN'S BAD LUCK.

SEAPLANE DESTROYED BY FIRE

(Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 9.15 a.m.) NEW YORK, April 6. . Messages from Rooseveldt Dam (Arizona) says that the Marchese Di Pinedo's flight ended to-day when his seaplane, Santa Maria, caught fire, as it was refuelling there, preparatory to hopping off for San Diego. Di Pinedo and his crew are safe.. The machine is a total loss. Immediate efforts will he made to raise the engine, which is resting on the bottom of Rooseveldt Lake at a depth of SOft.

Di Pinedo was talking to newspaper men on the shore when a sudden blast was heard on the lake at the landing buoy, and ,£he big ship was instantly a mass of flames. , The mechanics, who were adjusting the motor in preparation for the next leg of the flight, leaped overboard, and swam to safety, while the 'plane burned furiously. Nobody was injured. The Marchese had come ashore only a short time previously. He had stayed with the craft'in the middle lake while the mechanics tuned up the engines and began refuelling with 300 gallons of petrol. . The blast occui-red just as the airman was outlining his plans for proceeding to San Diego immediately on a non-stop flight of 400 miles. It is presumed that some gasolene being poured into the fuel tanks dripped on to part of the heated engine, causing an explosion.