RESCUE DRAMA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 213, 9 September 1935, Page 7

RESCUE DRAMA.

AIR CRASH SEQUEL. Three Flyers Picked Up Nearly Exhausted. 'PLANE'S GOLD CONSIGNMENT. (United P.A.-Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 9.30 a.m.) ALICE SPRINGS, this day. The Transcontinental Airways Mouospar aeroplane, carrying a consignment of gold, which made a forced landing owing to a shortage of petrol on a flight from Darwin to Adelaide, was wrecked. The pilot and two passengers, however, were not injured. A search party which left Alice Springs found one of the two passengers, Mr. C. Kenficy, tramping through the desert 15 miles from Aileron, a small station on the transcontinental telegraph line. The other two, Messrs. M. Mather (pilot) and L. Maloney, who had remained to guard the gold before leaving the 'plane in desperation, wore found walking on a direct course to Alice Springs. After being without food and water for three days, they had left the 'plane and weiyj picked up too exhausted to give a coherent account of their experiences. Mr. Renfrey had been struggling across the desert in the blazing sun for two days in an effort to get help for his two companions, and was on the point of exhaustion when found by the searchers.

The abandoned 'plane, which landed about 40 miles from the nearest habitation, has now been located. DARING FLIGHT. GLIDER CROSSES THE ALPS. (Received 12.30 p.m.) GENEVA, September 8. A Swiss airman named Schreiber was the first to cross the Alps in a glider. An aeroplane towed him to a height of 10,500 feet above the Bernese Oberland, after which, rising unaided to 12,000 feet, he completed the journey in 0 hours 20 minutes, landing at Bellinzona.