STORY OF CRASH

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 63, 8 December 1930, Page 11

STORY OF CRASH

Miss Spooner’s Pluck AEROPLANE IN FOG Altimeter Was Incorrect By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright (Rec, December 7, 5.5 p.m.) Rome, December 6. Miss Winifred Spooner and FlyingOfficer Edwards are both at Belmonte recovering. Miss Spooner, the British airwoman, who, with Flying-Officer Edwards, left Croydon on Wednesday on an attempt to beat the record flying time to Cape Town, was forced down by engine trouble in the sea off the Italian coast the same night. Edwards Was Piloting. Their machine has been found to be damaged beyond repair. The Italian authorities sent a seaplane to be entirely at their disposal, and the Italian Press publish lengthy articles praising Miss Spooner’s part In the adventure. . She was asleep, and Flying-Officer Edwards was piloting at the time of the crash. Miss Spooner got into the water and lost sight of the aeroplane in the darkness, but through a driving rainstorm she saw a light at the station and managed to struggle ashore after swimming in heavy flying clothes for two hours. She asked that search parties be sent to look for Flying-Offi-cer Edwards, and went in one of the rescuing boats. They found Edwards almost unconscious from loss of blood and exposure. He was clinging to the tall of the deeply submerged aeroplane, but insisted on remaining there to superintend the towing of the ’plane into harbour. Caught in a Fog. Miss Spooner’s own narrative throws fresh light on the adventure, and shows that the aeroplane flew directly into the sea. After leaving Rome she went to sleep. Three hours later she awoke and noticed that they were flying in a fog. She asked Edwards their whereabouts, and he asked for a navigation chart While he was reaching for it there was a terrific crash. A few moments previously the altimeter showed 11,000 feet. She could not understand how the mistake occurred. Directly the machine struck, sea water entered the cabin. “I made an exit through the window and began to swim. I called out te Edwards,‘Swim for it!’ He apparently did not hear me. I swam for two hours before I reached the shore.” Members of the Italian Air Forte dismantled Miss Spooner’s machine for dispatch to Naples. Flying-Officer Edwards and Miss Spooner will proceedthere before going to London in Edwards’s Moth.