RADIO MESSAGES STOP

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21639, 25 November 1935, Page 11

RADIO MESSAGES STOP

+ Silence on Antarctic Flight FORCED LANDING POSSIBLE FOURTEEN HOURS IN AIR (C.-UIF.D TKESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) (Received November 24, 7.20 p.m.) NEW YORK, November 24. A North American Newspaper. Alliance message from Dundee Island at 10 a.m. (New Zealand time) says that Mr Lincoln Ellsworth and Mr T. H. Kenyon, his pilot, had then been away on their third attempt to fly across the continent for about 14 hours, and since 4.5 a.m. no wireless messages had been received from the aeroplane. There is no way of knowing whether they have had a forced landing, or whether their radio transmitting set is out of order.

A message at 4.3 indicated that the position of the machine was about longitude 76 east, latitude 79 south, after which the sending became jumbled and finally cea&ca. They may still be on the way to the Bay of "Whales, for they have fuel for about 20 hours, but in any case, the Wyatt Earp, although she is ready to sail, will remain here until definite word is received. Until 4.5 p.m. frequent wireless messages had been exchanged with the Folar Star. Although there was some fog the flight was progressing well. At 11.45 p.m. Mr Ellsworth reported seeing Lurabee Channel and Stefansson Strait from an altitude of 13,000 feet. The temperature was minus 21 degrees centigrade. Until that time the machine had maintained a speed of 125 miles an hour. From then until the final message Mr Ellsworth sent a rapid series of reports of seeing new mountains. Once he mentioned seeing many crevasses, but added, "there are a lot of places where one could land." The Polar Star is equipped with an emergency radio transmitter, and it had been arranged that if necessary, Mr Ellsworth would attempt to "communicate with the Wyatt Earp at specified hours. One of these times has passed already, however, without a message.