SEARCH IN THE ALPS

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 97, 18 January 1933, Page 9

SEARCH IN THE ALPS

Captain Hope Looking for Mr. Hinkler A DIFFICULT TASK Official Wireless. Rugby, Jan. 16. Captain Lawrence Hope, one of the leading British pilots, flew yesterday (c Basle, Switzerland, whence he will wake flights over the Alps in search of his friend, Squadron-Leader Hinkler who has been missing since January 7, when he left Feltham, England, in an effort to create a new record for the flight to Australia. Snowstorms, clouds, and bad visibil* ity prevented Captain Hope from thoroughly scrutinising the Alps, states a Press Association cablegram from Basle. The airman made two flights ever the sector Mr. Hinkler probably traversed. Other reports have now been received of an aeroplane above Morgins on the morning of January 7. Captain Hope ascertained that a policeman at Montana-Verniala saw a machine heading for the simplon half an hour after the time given in the report cabled yesterday. There were no Swiss or French machines in the locality that efty. Mr. Hinkler should have been there at 8 a.m., but if the machine seen at 11 a.m. was his, it shows that he had been trying for some time to get through the cloud barrier which was thick over the Jura that day. Lack of news on the Italian side suggests that the airman did not get across. It is significant that Captain Hope in the forenoon feared to have to make a forced landing from a height of 7000 feet, but surmounted the trouble, though there was ice on his carburettor when he landed.

He will search Montana-Verniala tomorrow. RECORD CROSSING Westward Over the Atlantic DEMONSTRATION FLIGHT Loudon, Jan. 16. A triple-engined twelve-ton aeroplane, piloted by Captain Mermoz with a crew of six, including the constructor, Rene Couzinet, left St. Louis, Senegal, at 4.4 S a.m. for Natal, Brazil, to demonstrate the practicability of a regular South Atlantic service. A wireless message received at 8.10 stated that all were well and they hoped to maintain a speed of 150 miles an hour. A message from Natal, Brazil, states that Mermoz arrived there to-day at 1.40 p.m., American E.S.T. Mermoz averaged more than 140 miles an hour, setting a record for fourteen hours ten minutes for the 1962-mile westward crossing of the South Atlantic. He and his party are the first to breakfast iu Africa and dine in Brazil. GIRL FLYERS MISSING Search from Nairobi Official Wireless. Rugby. Jan. .16. Aeroplanes left Nairobi to-day to search for. two young English airwomen, Misses Joan Page and Audrey Sale Barker, who were missing after leaving Moshi for Nairobi on Saturday. The airwomen, who had flown from the Cape, were returning home by easy stages. The hop from Moshi to Nairobi is ISO miles over rough bush thickly inhabitated by big game. They set off in stormy weather, following the mail aeroplane, but when, owing to the weather, the latter turned back, the girls flew on. This afternoon one of the searching pilots reported seeing about 40 miles from Nairobi a wrecked machine with one girl standing by waving. Beingunable to land, he returned to Nairobi, and is leaving with other machines and with a doctor, food, and flrsfaid equipment. Miss Page, who is an experienced pilot, is the daughter of Sir Arthur Page, the Chief Justice of Burma. Miss Sale Barker is a noted skier. ENGINE FAILURES Japanese Plane Accidents Tokio, Jan. 16. Yesterday a military aeroplane plunged into the sea off the shore of Korea, drowning a lieutenant and sergeant-major. To-day a naval aeroplane fell into Tokio Bay, drowning a sergeant. Both accidents were due to engine failures.