FOR ENGLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 250, 22 October 1928, Page 7

FOR ENGLAND.

AIRMAN'S SACRIFICE.

Secret Of Perilous Flight Across

Atlantic.

MBS. MACDONALD'S BTOST.

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.)

LONDON, October 21

Hope has practically been aban • doned for Commander H. C. Macdonald, who left St. Johns, Newfoundland, on Wednesday at 1.21 pjn. in a Gipsy Moth aeroplane on an attempted flight across the Atlantic.

A wireless message which may explain the fate of the airman has been issued by Lloyd's. This was picked up by the Portishead wireless station, Somerset, from the steamer Firach, which said she sighted on Wednesday at 11 p.m. at a great distance lights which appeared to resemble the flames from an explosion.

It is significant that the bearings given corresponded very closely with the position where Macdonald was sighted from the Dutch steamer Hardenburg. The time was also similar.

It now seems certain that the airman was forced down soon after he passed the Dutch steamer. The lights referred to may have been caused by an explosion on his 'plane when it struck the sea, or an attempt by the airman to attract the attention of vessels which he knew were in the vicinity.

Universal sympathy is felt for the wife of the missing man. Her courage has been equal to that of her husband. Late on Friday night, when the position was desperate, she said she still hoped Macdonald might have landed somewhere.

She was practically without 'sleep for 40 hours, and broke down on Friday. She then 6lept fitfully for a few hours.

Curiously enough the same hope was expressed yesterday by Sir Sefton Brancker, Director of Civil Aviation, who thought Macdonald might have landed somewhere in Norway or thereabouts. Before the flight Sir Sefton said he was prepared to bet 10 to 1 on the airman's success. Wife's Spirited Reply. In a poignant article in the "Sunday Express" Mrs. Macdonald says that ever since her husband started on the flight her women friends have been asking her why she let him go. Her answer was another question, namely, When has the wife of an Englishman, or the wife of a patriot in any country, tried to dissuade her husband from an act of courage or one which would do credit to his nation t Did Englishwomen try to prevent their men from fighting in the war?

Mrs. Macdonald says the affair began in a crowded restaurant after Colonel Lindbergh's flight. Two Americans were talking about it, and said: "We have put it across England."

Her husband, who was sitting close by the Americans, overheard them and formed a decision. He planned a world flight, but crashed in a desert. That failure seemed only to stimulate him. He bought a new machine and told his wife he was going away for the weekend.

Mrs. Macdonald only learned that her husband had gone to America from friends who accidentally saw him setting off from Paddington station. The next news was contained in a few brief cablegrams before the start of the flight.

Then there was •silence until a friend handed her a letter which her husband had left to be given to her two days after the start of the flight.

"Some of the contents of the letter are sacred," says Mrs. Macdonald, "and meant only for me, but some pails of it must be given to the world for his sake." She gives the following extracts:—

"I know you are opposed to my plan. I know, too, that people will say I am a suicidal fool, but I do not think so. After all they called Lindbergh 'the flying fool.' If an American coidd do it an Englishman can.

"If I have made a mistake, darling, I am sorry. It will be terrible for you."

Mrs. Macdonald says she will carry on her husband's business —a yachting agency.

CONFLICTING VIEWS.

BEPO&T8 PUT TO TEST.

(British Official Wireless.) (Received 12 noon.)

RUGBY, October 21,

The position indicated in the message stating that an explosion was seen by the steamer Mirach, is about 500 miles east of Commander H. C. starting point. He would have been in that area, at half-past eleven on Wednesday evening, six and a-half hours after he left Newfoundland. There could have been no explosion in the aeroplane then, as he was seen at 12.30 on Thursday morning and an hour later by the steamer Hardenberg. It is suggested he had already found himself in difficulties and was throwing out Verey lights as signals of distress. Such lights dropped from a height would be visible at a great distance.

A mysterious point is that if this happened how is it that he should have been seen flying an hour later apparently all well? DROP FROM 'PLANE. GIRL'S FATAL FALL. (United Service.) GENEVA, October 21. An air pilot named Mauerhofer wa? flying in a Swiss military 'plane at a height of 1000 ft above the Aletsch Glacier when he was caught in a whirlwind. With the greatest difficulty he righted his machine. He then looked round and found that a girl passenger, Miss Clata Gerber, had disappeared. A search party found the girl's body on the glacier.