RUN OF BAD LUCK

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 125, 22 November 1935, Page 11

RUN OF BAD LUCK

POLAR FLIGHT

ELLSWORTH RETURNS TO BASE

A FRESH START

United Press Association—By Electric Tele.

graph—Copyright.

NEW YORK, November 21

After setting out yesterday morning to fly across the Antarctic and being forced to return owing to the breaking of a gauge, Messrs. Lincoln Ellsworth and Hallick-Kenyon left Dundee Island again in the aeroplane Polar Star at 8.3 a.m. G.M.T.

In a message from Dundee Island after his return, Mr. Ellsworth stated: "We are back at the Wyatt Earp. Despite ideal weather and a favourable take-off from the field, bad luck seems' to dog us. Everything seemed in our favour when we took off. The Polar Star did remarkably well despite the gritty snow surface, and lifted a gross load of over 7000 pounds in a run of less than half a mile.

"It was a great moment and a thrill to feel that at last, after three years of effort, we were off with apparently every prospect of success. But less tr.an an hour after the start things began to go badly in the pilot's cockpit, and in less than two hours Kenyon, with a sad look on his face, handed me a note: 'Afraid we will have to go back. Slight leak in fuel line and might get worse.'

"I hardly had time to adjust my mind to the disappointment when another note came stating that the fuel flow gauge had broken. I knew that only a thin celluloid shield held the petrol in, and, with that giving way, the pilot would have been drenched with fuel and the pressure would be released, in which case the engine would stop, so we reluctantly decided to turn bacK. It was heart-breaking. We landed with our heavy load safely near the starting-point, feeling very sorry for ourselves in having lost such a splendid opportunity. If it is still fine tomorrow morning we will make another try."