POSITION GIVEN

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 157, 5 July 1937, Page 7

POSITION GIVEN

SIGNALS PICKED UP.

'Plane May Be 120 Miles West of

Howland.

CUTTER LEAVES FOR SEARCH

United Press Association.—Copyright.

(Received 11.30 a.m.) HONOLULU, July 4. Mr. Paul Mantz, the noted American pilot, who accompanied Mrs. Putnam on her previous attempt on a world flight, which terminated with a crash at Honolulu, announced at ban Francisco that he had confirmed the reception by four amateurs of radio messages from the lost fivers on Saturday morning. He said" all tour had received identical messages giving the position as longitude 179 and latitude 1.6. This position would place the fivers about 120 miles due west of Howland and just north of the equator. Mr. Mantz gave the information to the San Francisco coastguard and they are expected to relay it to the Itasca. The Itasca has departed from Howland Island in order to investigate the position reported by the Los Angeles amateurs. The cutter picked up a strong carrier signal of wireless dashes on the flyers' frequency. A short-wave radio at Los Angeles picked up an S.O.S. in which a woman's voice repeated Mrs. Putnam's call letters. The voice and frequency were identical with those in yesterday's calls. Voice Recognised. A powerful amateur radio station at Los Angeles yesterday morning also heard what apparently was the radioed position of Mrs. Putnam's aeroplane between S.O.S. calls. The operators said it was 179 and what sounded like 1.6. If that meant latitude and longitude, they calculated that the position would be 300 or 400 miles off the coast of Howland Island. The flyers seemed to be in communication with some weaker station near by and seemed to be talking intermittently. The Los Angeles operators said they could hear them send "0 Kay." The first voice heard was recognised as that of Mrs. Putnam, calling 5.0.5., 5.0.5., S.O.S. The voice was definitely on the wave-band of the missing aeroplane, and it repeated Mrs. Putnam's call letters K.H.A.Q.Q. One of the operators said: "It was Mrs. Putnam all right. I know her voice very well." Later in the morning the voice of Mr. Noonan was heard" by radio. Apparently he and Mrs. Putnam were sending in turn. Previously, the search from Howland was based on the theory that Mrs. Putnam had overshot Howland. Although the skies were overcast and the Itasca's progress was hindered by rain squalls and choppy seas, the crew were confident they would find the flyers and expected to reach the new search area before daylight.

TROPICAL WEATHER.

Snow and Sleet at Equator Make Rescuers Turn Back. 'PLANE CONTROLS FROZEN. (Received 12 noon.) HONOLULU, July 4. I. T. Harvey, commander of a Navy seaplane, was forced to turn back from the search for Mrs. Putnam after battling against a weird tropic storm for two hours 400 miles east of Howland. "There is little hope of the flyers surviving if forced down under such conditions as I and my crew of seven encountered," he said. "I have been flying for 11 years but have never faced such adverse weather. "It was most amazing. We were near the equator yet the snow and sleet were terrific. We went off our course 250 miles to attempt to get to Howland. The controls froze, and once we feared we would be forced down." According to a San Francisco message, Mrs. Putnam's husband expressed the belief that radio calls picked up by amateurs indicated that the flyers had landed on a small island, instead of being adrift on the ocean. He thought they were running one motor at a time to generate current for the radio. They were, he said, well provided with rations. They had sufficient condensed food, malted milk and chocolate to last several weeks, Also, there was on board a rebreather outfit, which manufactures drinking water by condensing the human breath, a two-men rubber raft, flares and a bright orange kite which they could send aloft to attract attention.

FLIGHT CRITICISED.

-GIVE NOTHING TO AVIATION. NEW YORK, July 4. Although the safety Mrs. Putnam and Mr. Noonan is the chief concern at present, there is a strong feeling in America that the flight should not have been made, especially in aviation circles—both Government and commercial—on the ground that it was needless and extremely unlikely to contribute anything to the science of aviation. Several prominent pilots prepared strongly worded articles condemning the flight prior to the take-off but they were forced to suppress them. The attitude of the Government was made plain several weeks ago when the head of the Bureau of Air Commerce included the venture in the category of "freak flights," as being dangerous, useless, and more likely to harm aviation than help it. He said he regretted having issued Mrs. Putnam's permit.

Aviation officials regard it as increasingly evident that the day of ocean flight pioneering by individuals has passed. There was a time when such flights were needed to focus public attention on the feasibility of linking continents bv air, but now the emphasis is strongly upon safe, efficient and wellplanned commercial and Government venture*