THE KOOKABURRA TRAGEDY.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19610, 4 May 1929, Page 15

THE KOOKABURRA TRAGEDY.

SHORT OF TOOLS? GOLD PROSPECTOR'S STORY. (■CTT'TXD PR-ESS ASSOCIATION—BT BLBCTBIC TELEGRAPH—COPTBIGHT.) SYDNEY, May 3. It is now disclosed that the compass with which Lieutenant Keith Anderson and Mr Hitchcock were taken so far out of their course on the ill-fated Kookaburra's flight was fitted into the 'plane only the day before it left Richmond. The compass was that used by Captain Lancaster in his flight from England in the Red Rose, with Mrs Miller, and it had not been used or tested sinoe.*-Australian Press Association.

MEETING WITH FLYERS, ADELAIDE, May 3. Martin Krommcr, a gold prospector, who is now visiting Adelaide, tells of a romantic meeting with Anderson and Hitchcock thirty-four miles south of Oodnadatta on April 9th. Krommer was sitting on the roadside when the Kookaburra alighted nearby He hurried to the 'plane and saw the aviators .examining the engine. Anderson asked Hitchcock for a box of tools. Hitchcock replied: Somebody stole them while I was in hospital. (Hitchcock had a bad illness before the Anderson retorted: Why didn't you tell me at Broken Hill? Thev worked on the engine, using a screwdriver as a chisel and the end of a corkscrew as a hammer. They had difficulty in getting into the air until Krommer held one wing and Hitchcock the other. Then both thanked Krommer, shook hands, and flew awav. Krommer said that it seemed that the aviators were very short of tools, due to theft by somebody.—Australian Press Association.