PLANE PRESUMED LOST IN SEA

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27496, 2 November 1954, Page 13

PLANE PRESUMED LOST IN SEA

U.S. Transport With 42 Aboard (Rec. 8 p.m.) NEW YORK, October 31. A Lockheed Super Constellation with 42 persons aboard was presumed to have been lost in the Atlantit ocean tonight, 24 hours after taking off from Patuxent, Maryland, on a transatlantic flight. A 2000-square mile area -into which the plane disappeared was searched today and tonight by a sea-air team of Navy and Coast Guard units. The plane was last heard from at 1.1 p.m. on Saturday, two hours after it had taken off for Port Lyautey, Africa, and the Azores. At that time it was about 300 miles off Cape May, New Jersey. The Navy said the plane carried 21 crew members and 21 passengers, including eight civilians and two Air Force men. The passengers were men on assignment to new stations and their dependents. One entire family was aboard the aircraft. The commander of the eastern sea frontier in New York (Vice-Admiral Laurence Dubose), who is directing the search, tonight received a report that a flare had been spotted 205 miles off the coast of Virginia. Although the Navy said chances wer6 slim that the flare came from plane survivors,' the search was redoubled. Planes and ships from the United States, Newfoundland, Bermuda, Africa, and the Azores were thrown into the search. “We are using all means and forces available to try to locate the plane.” Admiral Dubose said. The craft was well equipped with disaster gear, should it have made a crash landing at sea, the Navy said. This equipment included five rafts, each of which was designed to support 20 men, and 102 life preservers. One of the rafts was equipped with a radio transmitter. The flare report was received by Admiral Dubose’s headquarters from an Eastern Airlines’ pilot who said it had been intercepted from a destroyer. It is known that naval units are operating in the area from which the report came. It is suspected that it might have been fired by one of these units.