BACK FROM VOID.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 123, 27 May 1929, Page 7

BACK FROM VOID.

MEN WHO RETURNED. Mishaps In Long-Distance Flying. PRIVATIONS OF PIONEERS. The comparatively short history of long-distance aviation has been punctuated by many mishaps, some of which, unfortunately, have proved fatal. There have, however, been many remarkable instances of airmen, Avho, although reported dead, have turned up after having suffered many privations.

Perhaps the first of these latter cases was,that of Lieutenant H. Hawker, who, with Commander Grieve, attempted a flight from Newfoundland to Ireland in a single-engined two-seater Sopwith 'plane. On May 19, 191!), these two pioneer aviators set out on their long flight, confident of success. Next day, however, the intensely interested British public received the startling news that tile airmen had been forced down in the Atlantic. Reports stated that they had made their descent in a terrible gale when only 40 miles short of their objective. All hope was abandoned for the intrepid men till on May 20 a report stated that they had been found. A Danish steamer had picked tlicm up. On arrival in Scotland the true story of their plight was divulged. When nearly to their objective they realised thar. with the petrol supply failing tlicy could not rnako their gaol. Accordingly they searched for a steamer and sent out a distress signal, which was answered. A descent was made in a stormy sea, but it was ninety minutes before the two men were finally rescued from a watery grave by a cutter from the Mary, which was launched at great risk to the seamen's lives.

How the searchers became the searched was told by a party who set out in a hydroplane to seek Nungesscr and Coli, who were lost in an attempt to /!y the Atlantic. A fortnight after the rescuing 'plane had set out three members of the crew arrived back at Quebec minus their 'plane. It was revealed that the engine failed in mid-air, causing a forced landing some distance from the shore. This necessitated a 37-mile march to the nearest place of habitation. A providential rescue from death in the Arctic was effected in September last year, when Bert Ilassell and Parker Cramer were discovered by Eskimos on the coast of Greenland after no news had been heard of tlicm for a fortnight. They had attempted to reach Europe by way of Greenland. They ■ struck the Greenland coast south of the base they aimed for, and, running short of petrol, were obliged to make a landing. For days they plodded on foot in search of Camp Lloyd, living on pcnimlcan and building llres to attract attention. Eventually their smoke fires were seen by a party of Eskimos, who escorted them back to civilisation. The most recent case of all concerned three Uruguayan aviators who left Montevideo on March 15 last on a projected flight to Washington.' A fortnight after they had passed Guayaquil three exhausted men staggered into Bogato and told the story of how they had escaped from a burning 'plane. Polar exploration from the air also contains several instances of aviators having been missing and of fears happily dispelled. The late Captain Amundsen was lost in 1925.in the far north for a month, while Sir Hubert Wilkins had a trying adventure. for fourteen days in the Point Barrow locality. Australians, and more recently Australia, have been before the eyes of the world on three notable instances in which well-known aeronauts have been lost. The case of Moir and Owen, following so quickly on those of the Southern Cross and the tragedy of the Kookaburra, go to emphasise the hazards of long-distance aviation and the enormity of the. Commonwealth.