STILL NO WORD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 208, 3 September 1927, Page 9

STILL NO WORD.

PLANE LONG OVERDUE

British Airmen's Fate Almost

Hopeless.

JUST ONE CHANGE LEFT.

(By Cable.—Pre* Association.—Copyright)

(Received 10 ajo.)

OTTAWA, September 2.

Hope has been virtually abandoned for the safety of the aeroplane St. Raphael, with Captain Hamilton, Lieutenant-Colonel and Princess Lowenstein-Wertheim on board, i They are now many hours overdue.

A constant - vigil is being kept but ships and radio stations report there is no trace of the 'plane. Rumours from other sources proved to be unfounded.

Very cold weather, with fog, cloudy sky, and north-east winds prevailed during the night.

The petrol supply of the St. Raphael would have given out at midnight on Thursday.

Experts do not think it possible that the machine can have landed anywhere without being noticed, as it would have first of all been compelled to pass somewhere through a of thirty-five radio stations. It is considered that destruction would be inevitable if the aviators made an attempt to anywhere on ice.

The only hope remaining it that the minting flyers and the Princess may have been picked op by a <ut»fng vessel that is unable to communicate with the shore owing to having no wireless.

OMINOUS SILENCE.

Experts Discus Mi—tng Tlane's

Chances.

BAD WEATHER IN ATLANTIC.

(Received 2 pjn.)

LONDON, September 2.

There is still no news of the St. Raphael. The Canadian Marine Department states that the whole Canadian coast, as far as 300 miles north of Belle Isle, has been combed, but all the radio stations have reported absolutely no word of the monoplane.

It is considered more likely now that the machine has been compelled to descend in the Atlantic. The weather in the Atlantic has undergone a decided change for the worse in the last 24 hours. Almost exactly in the middle of the Atlantic and in the northern area through which the St. Raphael would attempt to Iky, there developed to-day a very marked centre of bad weather. 1 This would mean that for an area of at Inst 800 miles on the probable route strong winds were blowing with eland: and rain. In a rough sea the collapsible boat which the St. Raphael carried would be launched -with difficulty and could probably be kept afloat only with great skill and effort.

In the western part of the Atlantic ■mi off the coast of yewfaondlaiid the weather has slightly improved, owing to the disappearance of the fog, so-that if the St. Raphael had got well mtoss the Atlantic die « of being picked up are better than if it had eome down towards the middle. Nearer Newfoundland there are chances also of being observed and picked up by fishing boats, many of which do not carry wireless so that several days might pass without news reaching England. It is recalled that when the Englishman Hawker and his companion were picked tip in the Atlantic in 1919 by a steamer without wireless, it was a week before news of their safety was announced.

'PLANE SIGHTED. Report Gomes From MidAtlantic Ocean. BBIHSH EXPERTS' PEAKS. (Received 23U pa.) LONDON, September 2. A well-known British expert holds out *io hope for St. BaphaeL A dramatic announcement was made iast night by Air Ministry to the eect that at midnight a message had teen received from the steamer Jasiah Maeey, which stated that an aeroplane |j«« passed overhead at a point halfway across the Atlantic, in a direct line with the north of Scotland. That was fourteen hours after the plane started from the Upavon aerodrome in Wiltshire, and is the first news of any during the past 56 hours. The general opinion '"""g people conversant with flying is that this news renders the situation more hopeless than ever. Experts here endorse the Canadian opinion that the 'plane has not crossed Newfoundland. They think there is only the remotest chance that the passengers aave been picked up by a steamer not carrying wireless, and each hour renders the more remote. Attention has been called to the fact chat the flight over the Atlantic from West to east is far less difficult than the flight from east to west. Captain G. M. Garro-Jones, late adrisory officer to the American Air Service, points out that it has been well proved that-the winds in the Atlantic 2000 feet up are relatively stronger than at sea level, and might be confined to a zone which would not be observed on board ship.