AERIAL ADVENTURE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 131, 6 June 1933, Page 7

AERIAL ADVENTURE

MR. MATTERN AT MOSCOW

AFTER LANDING IN NORWAY

SOLO FLIGHT RECORD

United Preis Association—By Electric Ma* graph—Copyright. (Received June 6, 10 a.m.) LONDON, June 5. The American aviato-r, Mr. Jamei Mattern, who, after starting on a solo flight round the world from New York with a, proposed first stop at Moscow, was not reported along the usual Una of route, landed on the coaat of Norway on Sunday morning, reached Oslo to« day, and resumed his flight to Moscow. At Moscow Mr. Mattern was accorded a great welcome when he landed threo hours ahead of the existing record. Ha , landed from an angry aky. The heady of the Soviet civil air fleet and a num.* her of Soviet airmen received him. When Mattern landed at Jomfruland Island, south-west of Oslo, on Sunday he believed it was Scotland. Fog and storms forced him to take a northerly course. He damaged the nearside at a wing owing to a dive in the fog, but repaired it himself. He remained the night before proceeding to the military aerodrome at Oslo. . Mattern flew four thousand miles non-stop, breaking the solo flight record. Despite lack of food and shortage of sleep he says that he is feeling fine. Nevertheless, he had a terrible passage of the Atlantic. Eainstorms, headwinds, and thunder forced him. to fly at 9000 feet, where he avoided ■' them, but ice formed on the wings, bringing him almost to water leyel. When ha sighted Norway at nine in the morning on Sunday somewhere south of Stavanger, believing himself in the neighbourhood of Scotland, he flew southward to search for the Irish Channel. He continued to follow the coastline, but when it ; turned eastward and then northward he decided it was time to descend and discover his whereabouts. He saw what he thought was a sandy beach, but found it was pebbles and shingle, on which he was forced to risk a landing to thaw the wings and obtain sleep, as Tie was exhausted., When he alighted he. collapsed, fell, and lay for a few minutes. The inhabitants arrived and took him to a house where he slept for an hour, and as soon as the wings wera repaired, wanted immediately to continue to Oslo. He was dissuaded owing to the difficulty of bearings in the night time. So he departed at dawn. His arrival was not reported yesterday, because the newspapers and telegraph offices were closed. His adventures continued en route to Moscow. He flew blind in a fog. He intends to follow the Trans- . Siberian railway to Irkutsk, and thence to Alaska to beat the Post and Gatty record. '