LOST FLYER.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19447, 22 October 1928, Page 9

LOST FLYER.

STEAMER'S REPORT. FAINT HOPE REMAINS. 1 LONE ATLANTIC VENTURE. 1 (UHITBD PEBSB ASSOCIATION—BY EUSCTBIO •CBIJSOBAPB—COPIBIOHT.) (Received October 21st, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, October 20. The extraordinary degree of hope for Commander Macdonald's safety has been more or less banished by the rei ceipt of a message issued by Lloyd's, which was picked up by the Portishead wireless station from the steamer Firach, via the steamer Schenectady, Caledonia:—"Firach sighted October 17th, at 11.30 o'clock, at big distance, lights most probably resembling explosion." It is significant that the bearings given correspond very closely with the position where Macdonald was sighted by the Hardenburg. The time is also similar. It now seems certain that the airman was forced down soon after passing the Dutch steamer 600 miles from his starting point. The lights referred to may have been an explosion on the 'plane's contact with the water, or an attempt to attract the attention of vessels which Commander Macdonald realised in the vicinity. There is universal sympathy for Mrs Macdonald, whose courage was equal to that or her husband. Late to-night when the position was desperate, she said that she still had hopes that bo may land somewhere. She spent practically a sleepless 48 hours, but broke down to-day and slept fitfully for » few hours. Curiously enough, the same hope was expressed by Air Vice-Marshal Sir Sefton Brancker. "I still have hopes that he may be somewhere in Norway or thereabouts," he said, adding that before the flight started h 0 was pretpnred to bet ten to one on Commander Macdonald's success. The "Daily Express" announces that it has a letter in its possession which will be published in the "Sunday Express," setting out the reason whv /Commander Macdonald -ventured on the Atlantic flight alone. "Before he started," the paper states, "h e left this extraordinary letter, to be opened by his wife two days after his departure from New Found--4 m '—Australian Press Association, United Service. REASON FOR FLIGHT. W ACT OF COURAGE." MRS MACDONALD'S DEFENCE. (Received October 21st, 11.5 p.m.) LONDON, October 20. **■ 'Why did you let him go?' This,'i writes Mrs Macdonald in a poignant article in the "Sunday Express," "is the question that my women friends have been asking ever since my husband started on his flight. My answer is, when has the wife of an Englishman or the wife of a patriot of any country, tried to dissuade her husband from an act of courage or'credit to his nation. Did Englishwomen try to prevent their men from fighting in the wax? , "The affair oegan in a crowded restaurant after Colonel, Lindbergh's flight. Two Americans were talking, and they said: 'Yes, we've put it acros* England.* My husband, who was sitting nearby, overheard this remark and formed his decision. He planned a world flight and crashed in the destort. His failure seemed only to stimulate him. He-bought a new machine and told me he was going away for the week-end. I only learned that he had gone to America from friends who accidentally saw him setting off from Paddington station. "The next news came in a few brief cablegrams he sent me before starting the flight—then silence until a friend handed me a letter which my husband left to be given to me two days after the start of the flight. "That letter is sacred. It was meant for me only, but Borne of it must be given to the world for his sake. He wrote: 'I know you are against it, and I know, people will say I 3jtn a suicidal fool, but I do not think it. After all, they called Lindbergh the "flying fool." If an American could do it an Englishman can. - If I have made a mistake, darling, I am sorry—it will be terrible for you.'" * ' Mrs Macdonald adds that she will carry on her husband's business as a yachting agent.—Australian Press Association.