HINKLER'S END.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 100, 1 May 1933, Page 7

HINKLER'S END.

AUSTRALIA MOURNS. Further Details of Pilots Tragic Crash. WIFE AND MOTHER AT SEA. (United P.A.-Electrlc Telegraph—Copyright) SYDNEY, April 30. Mr. Bert Hinkler's -widow sailed from Sydney for England by the Strathaird a week ago. The liner now is nearing Fremantle. She placed a -wreath on the Cenotaph in Melbourne on Anzac Day in memory of her husband. Mr. Hinkler's mother was on her way to Perth by steamer and therefore -was not aware of the discovery of her son's body. Civil aviation circles are deeply grieved -at Mr. Hinkler's fate. He is described as a peerless pilot and wonderful navigator. / A message from Brisbane states that the Queensland Turf Club some years ago created a Hinkler Handicap in honour of Mr. Hinkler's record flight from England to Australia in 1927. That event was run on Saturday and so happened to coincide with the date on which the airman's body was found. The jockeys wore black arm-bands. Flags were flown at half-mast on all the public buildings in Mr. Hinkler's native town of Bundaberg, where the citizens desire the body should be taken for burial. A telegram from Melbourne says Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, in paying a tribute to Mr. Hinkler,' said: "I had nothing but the greatest admiration for him and deeply regret his death. The only mistake Mr. Hinkler made was his desire for secrecy. Perhaps also he was unwise in starting a long-distance flight from that side of the world in the middle of winter. I know only too well the terrible country where he came down." Scene of the Tragedy. Later reports from Rome disclose the fact that some petrol was left in all the tanks of the aeroplane which had crashed obliquely as if the pilot had seen the- ground looming ahead and made a desperate attempt to rise and clear it. The machine was not badly wrecked. The cabin was intact and a slight fire evidently had been promptly extinguished, by a storm. The airman's body was 70 feet away from the machine. His helmet had been wrenched off. The scene of the crash is 1000 feet from the summit of the mountain. A message from Florence says Mr. Hinkler's diary was found in a door pocket of the aeroplane. It records passing Le Bourget, Macon, Modane, Mount Cenis, Spezia and Florence. One entry indicates that the airman proposed then to fly over Mount Laverna, on the Adriatic coast, to Brindisi. A map found had the route to Australia marked in red and blue ink. An Italian airman, Signor Vasco Magrini, flew over Protomagno and dropped flowers on behalf of the Fascist militia. The body has been officially identified and the Italian Government is rendering the corpse official honours and awaiting instructions as to the burial. It is understood that the Commonwealth Government is prepared to pay the cost of bringing the body to London with every honour, but Mr. Hinkler's solicitor is awaiting the widow's wishes. AWFUL SUFFERING. Survivors of French Air Liner Disaster. NERVOUS PROSTRATION. ROME, April 30. A message from Naples says the three survivors of the disaster to the French air liner wrecked on the Apennines are suffering from nervous prostration. They relate terrible stories of the sufferings of the dead passengers who were injured and pinned beneath the wreckage in deep snow when the aeroplane capsized, the mechanic being practically incapacitated by his injuries. The two,; men who survived, MM. Eteve and Gigaudct, strenuously but unavailingly strove to lift the solid mass of wreckage. . They lighted flares to attract help at night. The survivors huddled together in the cabin, tortured by the piteous cries of the sufferers beneath the machine. These were, so heart-rending that the survivors fled from the wreckage at daybreak, only to be driven back by cold and hunger on the second day. Gradually the cries of the imprisoned victims grew fainter as they succumbed to cold and exhaustion. M. Eteve attributes his escape to changing seats with a dead passenger in order to give the latter a better view of the scenery.