Round-The-World Flight Delayed

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30395, 20 March 1964, Page 2

Round-The-World Flight Delayed

(N.Z. Prest Association—Copyright)

NEW ORLEANS, March 18. Mrs Joan Merriam Smith, the “flying housewife” from California on a solo flight around the world, landed safely under emergency conditions at New Orleans International Airport today.

Mrs Smith, aged 27, radioed ahead that “something” had ripped loose from her plane. She thought the door of the twin - engined aircraft’s luggage compartment had sprung open.

A passing pilot said It appeared that a radio aerial had ripped loose. A fire-engine stood by while the blonde Navy wife coasted her aircraft in for a safe landing. Officials found that the dam-

aged part was a fairing—a rubber strip to keep water out of the wing—that had torn loose and banged against the cock-pit door for the last 20 miles of the second leg of the flight from Tucson, Arizona. It would have caused no trouble.

Mrs Smith, who hopes to be the first woman to circle the earth solo, was two hours late on the flight. She said bad weather, “the worst I’ve ever seen on a cross-country trip,” forced the delay. She was forced to make a brief but unscheduled landing at Lubbock, Texas. Mrs Smith said the damage would not stop her flight She was scheduled to go on to Miami tomorrow on the third leg of the 27,000-mile journey.