AEROPLANE DISASTER

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 257, 30 October 1929, Page 7

AEROPLANE DISASTER

London Press Question Actions Of Italians. SATISFACTORY FEATURE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 12 noon.) RUGBY, October 29. The Postmaster-General, Mr. H. B. Lees-Smith, regrets to announce that as a result of the "wreck of the Imperial Airways aeroplane City of Rome in the Gulf of Genoa last Saturday, the -whole India air mail which left Karachi on October 20 and mails which left Basra and Bagdad on October 22, and Gaza and Alexandria on October 23, are believed to have been destroyed.

Conflicting information regarding the disaster renders it difficult to appraise the circumstances. One or two reports suggest that attempts to take off the occupants by the crew of the Famiglia failed owing to the fury of the waves. Others assert that the seaplane was still riding out the gale when it broke adrift.

The captain declares that it vanished when the hawsers broke and that he searched fruitlesslv for hours.

Advices from India say that the disaster, following closely on top of the Jask smash, has aroused grave misgivings for the safety of the service and caused consternation In business circles.

The London Press is asking why the Famiglia, after the plane had broken adrift, abandoned it, why the occupants were not taken aboard and why three hours elapsed between the arrival of the Famiglia at Spezia and the dispatch of the destroyer. It is agreed that the only satisfactory feature of the tragedy was the behaviour of the flying boat, which was the best kind in "the world in a tempestuous sea.