LOST FLYING BOAT

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 258, 31 October 1929, Page 7

LOST FLYING BOAT

BURIAL OF VICTIMS.

Crew And Passenger Of City

Of Rome.

MACHINE IN DEEP WATER.

(United P.A.—Electric Telegraph-Copyright)

(Received 10 a.m.) SPEZIA (Genoa), October 30. The bodies of Pilot Birt, FlightEngineer Pembroke, Wireless-Opera-tor Stone, and Mr. Charles Ritchie, a passenger, victims of the lost flying boat City of Rome, were taken to Genoa for Protestant interment. In a simple wooden coffin, each body was borne on a gun carriage covered with a Union Jack. The procession comprised the local Prefect, the commander of the Naval Department, representatives of the Army, Navy and Air Force, the Mayor and the British Consul. Virtually the whole population of Spezia stood bare-headed along the route of the cortege. A message from Rome says the sunken flying boat has been located in 55 fathoms of water in the Gulf of Genoa. The difficulty in raising her-will be great and the expense extremely high. Divers will not be able to descend to the wreck. Sir Sefton Brancker, British Director of Civil Aviation, who is at Genoa, was an eye-witness of the attempted rescue of the passengers and crew of the air liner. He has officially thanked the Italian Government for the efforts made.