Prince In Air Race Dash

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31985, 12 May 1969, Page 13

Prince In Air Race Dash

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, May 11.

The tail end of the competitors in the transatlantic air race have left New York for London, among them Prince Michael of Kent, a captain in the Hussars. The prince, making his bid for honours aboard a Royal Air Force VCIO jet transport plane, left last night. ' The most colourful entrant remains the New Jersey spare-time flyer, Mr Ben Garcia. On his sixth attempt, he was to have left from the Empire State Building towards his goal at the top of the General Post Office tower in London, wearing a 1908-

vintage pink and orange striped bathing suit, an inflated rubber ring round his midriff, and skis. But although Mr Garcia checked out, he did not make his scheduled 8.0.A.C. commercial flight from Kennedy Airport because his reservation had not been confirmed. Sitting anxiously in the airport terminal, still in his bathing suit, he said he was waiting for the next 8.0.A.C. flight to London, which was delayed an hour and a half because of fog.

“All I’ve bad is trouble, and every time 1 turn round it gets worse,” Mr Garcia said while passers-by stared at his outlandish outfit. “All this has cost me a fortune, and if I do not win a-portion of the £5OOO prize in my category,

I don’t know how I’ll get back to the United States. “But I’m having, a ball. I’m doing what everyone should do in life, have a good time.” A London zoologist, Mr Thomas Ravensdale, did leave last night, elegant in a dinner jacket, but his appearance was marred by piaster casts on both ankles, wrapped in plastic bags. During one of five earlier attempts, he took a tumble from a motor-cycle and cracked his ankles badly. Earlier, a Royal Marine commando, Lieutenant Samuel Smith, had roared off on a motor-cycle, hopped aboard a helicopter and caught a scheduled flight for London Airport. He had recorded a time of seven hours 36 minutes 34 seconds in his

first attempt last Sunday. The record-breaking Royal Navy team also left early today in their supersonic Phantom jet.

A Women’s Royal Air Force n.c.0., Sergeant Heather Robinson, aged 21, who was in line for the fastest sub-sonic time, has decided to waive all claim to the £4OOO prize in her category. The Ministry of Defence has sent a message to the air-race control centre saying that Sergeant Robinson’s squadron will not accept the prize because special service facilities not available to civilian competitors enabled her to achieve her record 61 hour crossing. This means that Miss S. Schribner, of New York, aged 17, still leads in this class.