ANXIETY CONFESSED

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 120, 23 May 1930, Page 9

ANXIETY CONFESSED

BUT "I AM GOING ON"

AIRWOMAN'S LAST WORDS

(Received 23rd May, 1.20 p.m.)

LONDON, 22nd May.' . Tht "Daily Express" correspondent at Surabaya says: "The less I think about this the better. I know awfully well the last stretch of, the Timor Sea will give me the fright of my life, but I am going'on." These were the last words of Miss Johnson before setting out for Atamboea.

The Dutch mechanics had the aeroplane in good condition. Miss Johnson inspected it carfeully, tested the engine, and declared she was satisfied.

A great crowd assembled before dawn. The airwoman confessed she was anxious about the Timor stretch. "I know it is the most dangerous of the lot, but I shall fly high and I am feeling fit." , . . •- . . Two fingers of Miss Johnson's left hand were injured in the Java Sea crossing, and seemed slightly septic, but she was not worrying. She said that she will not allow pain and discomfort to stand in the way of her fixed determination to reach Australia. "Nevertheless," she said, "it is unlikely that I shall return by air. There are too many troubles in this flight." She confessed that the flight had been too much for her, requiring more than sho possessed in experience and. strength. She admitted that flying over the open sea frightened her considerably. "Oh, you should know the\ forlorn feeling! You arc alone in a frail machine, every moment feeling the motor will stop.' You havo to! face calamity. No, never, never again!"

Miss Johnson's father, interviewed while anxiously awaiting news, said he had not given up hope. If she landed on a small island, it must be some time before her whereabouts were known. Mr. Bert Hinkler said: "We can be optimistic. Tf anything has gone wrong, sho should be all right, for she is flying over a series of islands which are thereabouts, somewhat akin to stepping-stones. There is not any particular long water jump. On the other hand, there is not much shipping. It is most likely that, if she has been forced clown, sho has selected a riccfield, where one reasonably expects sho has escaped "without much damage. It should not be difficult to locate her, no matter in what remote part she has landed." .