ATLANTIC FLIGHT.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20916, 25 July 1933, Page 11

ATLANTIC FLIGHT.

j MOLLISONS CRASH ON | LANDING. i j i j NEITHER SERIOUSLY INJURED. - (l-KITED rurss ASSOCIATION— BT ILICTXIO , TIXiaSAJH—COrVEIIHT.) 1 (Received July 24, 8.20 p.m.) . BRIDGEPORT (Connecticut), | JULY 23. 1 After a successful flight across the • Atlantic, Mr and Mrs J. A. Mollison crashed when attempting a ' landing here, only 60 miles from : New York, where a great crowd had i been waiting for some time to welcome them. Neither was seriously injured. , Apparently, exhausted as they i were, they mistook the boundary 1 of the airport, in the darkness. Their [ aeroplane ran into a drainage ditch and turned over in the soft, marshy ground. Both were thrown clear, and searchers with electric torches found them about 400 feet from the boundary of the aerodrome. They had previously circled the aerodrome, which is the last of any .size before New York, five times, and seemed to be attempting to land on the runways. It was on the sixth attempt that they actually landed. Mr and Mrs Mollison had spent 39 hours in the air, from the time they left Pendine Sands, and had travelled all the time at between 90 and 100 miles an hour. Their petrol supply—4oo gallons—must have been practically finished. It is reported from the hospital that both Mr and Mrs Mollison are suffering from cuts and abrasions on head, legs, and arms. Both are said to be exhausted. [Mr Mollison and his wife, who was formerly Miss Amy Johnson, were flving a Dc Haviland Dragon biplane, fitted with two Gipsy Major engines. The space normally occupied by the 10 passengers which this type of machine can carry, is fitted with extra petrol tanks, which hold COO gallons. Possibly they were not; full when the aeroplane took off from Pendine Sands. Fully loaded, the aeroplane weighs three tons, which is a great deal more than the engines were meant to lift. The weight was too much for the undercarriage on the lirst attempt to take off, on June 8, and the machine was damaged. The Mollisons had planned 1o make a 12;000 mile flight, crossing the Atlantic to New York, recrossing it on a non-stop flight from New York to Bagdad, and flying from there back to London. If the New York-Bagdad non-stop flight had been accomplished they would have broken the world's record of 5340 miles non-stop established by Squadron-Leader Gavford and Flight-Lieutenant Nicholetts early this ycar.l