LONG-DISTANCE FLIGHT.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19115, 26 September 1927, Page 9

LONG-DISTANCE FLIGHT.

1 N.Z. AVIATOR'S THIRD ATTEMPT. • CRASH INTO THE DANUBE. (.FROM OUR OW» CORRISPONDRMT.) LONDON, August 13. Not until news was sent by telegraph that a British aeroplane had crashed into tho river Danube did it become known that Flight-Lieu tenant C. E. Carr (the Now Zealand aviator) had made another attempt to fly from tho Cranwcll Aerodrome, Lincolnshire, to India. With Flying-Officer Eric C. Dearth as navigator, Lieutenant Carr took off shortly after noon on Tuesday. The time of the start had been kept secret. Tho Air Ministry hoped that tho first news of tho flight to reach this country would be tho news of a triumphant success; a safe landing in India, and a clear margin over America's present world's record. On the same evening the aviators made a forced descent into tho~Danube near Aschach, Upper Austria. "I heard a great whirring sound which came nearer and nearor, and then a largo aeroplane hit the river with a terrible crash." This was tho description by the only eye-witness—a workman —of the descent of tho British aeroplane. Flight-Lieutenant C. R. Carr was slightly injured, but Flying-Officer Dearth is believed to have broken ribs and internal injuries. The machine was badly damaged. The Air Ministry, however, received a message from Lieutenant Carr that both were shaken, but unhurt. Dearth's Record. The crash represents tho first accident in which Flying Officer Doarth has figured in ten years of flying. He is a Londoner, is single, and was educated in Yorkshire. Ha is a nephew of Mr Harry Dearth, the singer. 'Even his family did not know that he was to be navigator on the trip. The machine is a Hawkef-Horsley bomber, similar to the one previously used in the effort to fly to India in June, when Flight-Licutcn-ant Carr made a forced landing at Martlesham (Suffolk). During an earlier attempt in May he came down in the Persian Gulf and his machine was lost.

When the plane came down, in the river the workman who saw it alarmed his friends who rushed to boats on the banks* With these they rescued the aviators, who were drifting rapidly downstream.. Pllght-Idoutenant Oarr's Story. A Vienna correspondent says that Flight-Lieutenant Oarr, who is extremely cheerful, gave the following account of the accident: "Our machine, which was heavily laden, began to show signs of engine trouble shortly before eight Apparently the lubrication hod gone but, at all events, when we were flying at a height of 1800 feet over the mountainous country near the Danube, our engine seized up completely, and we were obliged to select an immediate landing place. > "The only possible thing to do at that low altitude, and with a high flying speed, was to chance our luek in the Danube. The machine overturned when wo struck the water, and we were thrown out, but we managed to swim back to it.. I have been extremely lucky, and escaped with nothing more than a few bruises, but Dearth is less fortunate. There is, however, no cause for alarm, and if his full recovery is likely to prove a protracted business I shall bring him to one of those worldfamous nursing homes yon have in' Vienna> instead of taking him to Idn» Hospital. "Our machine, I am sorry to say, appears to be a total wreck, but the peasants who came to our rescue succeeded in salvaging it and dragging it to the bank of the Danube, and we hope to remove .the engine. • Hit Danube at 80 Miles an Hour. • How the HawkovHorsley aeroplane" was wrecked (owing, it is believed, to an overheated engine) in the river Danube, was described by. Flying Officer E. 0. Dearth, the navigator of the machine. Unconscious when he was picked up, Flying Officer Dearth was taken to hospital, and left his bedroom for the first time three days later. He said: ','Carr passed mo a note saying that we couldn't rise above 2000, and we adjusted our parachutes and safety-bolts. I made my last entry in the log-book, that the vjater was boiling and th« spurts of steam from the engine were blinding. Then tho engine stopped dead. Wo discarded the parachutes because we were then too low to use toem, and we struck tho Danube at 80 miles an hour. . A Double Somersault. v "Carr was flung 60 feet away, and I mvself a hundred feet, turning a double somersault and puncturing a lung, although I had no external 'injury. I could only swim with my arms, and Oarr helped mo to roach the 'plane. I could only hang on to it, as I was too weak to climb up. Johann Aufer brought a boat and helped Carr to lift mo out of the water. I thought my back was broken." The correspondent at Aschach states that Flight-Lieutenant Carr has a strained Bhoulder from the impact with the water, but the effect will not be lowing. In the meantime the engine of the 'plane is being packed for transmission to England for examination. The villagers are eagerly securing fragments of tho wrecked machine as souvenirs, and the task of the gendarmes, placed in charge of it, has become a slneCHre as only the engine is required.