RETURN FLIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 84, 10 April 1937, Page 18

RETURN FLIGHT.

AMERICAN CLIPPER.

KINGMAN REEF REACHED.

NO FURTHER REPORTS.

Completing the second "hop" of her return flight from Auckland to San Francisco in about 111 hours the PanAmerican Airways Clipper, which left Pago Pago at 5.14 a.m. (New Zealand time) yesterday, landed at Kingman Reef at approximately 4.30 p.m. yesterday. At 4.20 p.m. the Auckland headquarters of the company received a wireless message from the" Clipper that Kingman Reef has been sighted ahead. No further message was received, ,but it was stated that the flying boat would arrive about ten minutes later. North of the Equator Captain Edwin C. Musick brought the Clipper down from an altitude of between 8000 feet and 9000 feet to about 1800 feet. The average speed was in the vicinity of 140 knots. It was expected that the northward flight would be continued this morning. When the 'plane crossed the Equator she passed beyond the control of the Auckland headquarters into the charge of the base at Alameda, near San Francisco. No further progress reports will therefore be sent to Auckland. The Auckland staff has started to dismantle the gear assembled for the survey flight. Most of the gear will be taken back by the staff, Messrs. W. Turner Jarboe, A. A. Thompson and A. Francis, who will sail by the Aorangi on April