SAW AO-TEA-ROA.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 29, 4 February 1928, Page 15

SAW AO-TEA-ROA.

CREW STICKS TO STORY.

KAIWARRA'S MASTER EMPHATIC. '•NO POSSIBLE MISTAKE." In the hope of stimulating a more exhaustive land scarcli for the missing trans-Tasman livers, Captain E. Davies, master of the Kaiwarra, which is now in Auckland, emphatically reiterates his statement that he and other members of the ship's company saw the Ao-tea-roa over Cook Strait on the night of January 10.

"There is 110 possibility of our having mistaken it," said Captain Davies. "It has been suggested that we saw a shooting star, but a shooting star does not circle round. Of course, if I had been the only one to see it I might possibly have been persuaded to doubt my senses, but seven of us watched it."

Describing the incident, Captain Davies said that on leaving Wellington he instructed the officers to keep a sharp look-out- for the plane. While in Cook Strait they were informed by wireless that it had been seen from Stephen Island, and the chief officer, who had the watch, was looking for it from the port side of the bridge. About 11 o'clock, however, when the vessel was approaching The Brothers light, where the strait is at its narrowest, the chief steward saw the plane on the starboard side, i.e., to the north of the vessel. He called the mate, and in a few seconds a group, consisting of the master, the mate, the wireless operator, two of the cooks, and two of the stewards, was watching the plane from the deck.

"It dropped down from a big dark cloud," says Captain Davies, "and swung round in a wide circle. It was all agleam, partly, it seemed, by the reflected moonlight and partly by the exhaust. Experts in Australia told me that the light from the valve of the radio set reflected on to the wings, and thence on to the fuselage, would light up the plane. At any rate, it looked somewhat similar to a very fast passenger plane seen at night from a fair distance. Judging by the average visibility of objects at night I reckoned it was about fifteen miles away, or nearly over Porirua Harbour. The plane circled twice, dropping a lighted flare at each circle. The flares did not burn very brightly, and died out when they were about halfway down to the sea. On completing the second circle the plane headed in the general direction of Trentham, and passed into the clouds, which were hanging fairly low."

In discussing the subject with Sergt. Ward, who had tuned up the plane previous to the flight, Captain Davies was told that the rubber raft that the plane earned was more or less camouflage. Sergeant Ward declared that it took half an hour to inflate on land, and was a hopeless proposition in case of a forced landing at sea. With reference to the flares, Sergeant Ward said that the last thing he did was to give Captain Hood two bundles of cotton waste and a length of rubber tube, so that he would be able to soak them with petrol from the tank.

"I am positive that the plane crashed in the hills," concluded Captain Davies, and the experts who discussed the question with me in Australia hold the same opinion. The aviators must have known they were near the land, or they would not have dropped the flares, and they were certainly heading in the right direction when they disappeared. The cloud that was hanging above them would, however, in all likelihood obscure the tops of the ranges, and I was told in Australia that in such a cloud they would probably not be able to see as far as the tips of the wings. It is therefore probable that they would strike the top of one of the high mountain ranges before they saw it."