AIRLINER FOUND

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 50, 1 March 1937, Page 9

AIRLINER FOUND

THE MISSING STINSaM

BURNT AFTER CRASH

FIVE OF OCCUPANTS

, DEAD

(Received March 1, 9.30 a.m.)' •' United Press Association— By Electric Tele- .-■■• crapli—Copyright. :

BRISBANE, This l*r* ' The Stinson airliner of Airlines of Australia, Ltd, which ".has'-been Raving for the past nine days, has been found in the Macpherson Range, about 50 miles west of Brisbane.

The aeroplane was found a blackened and burnt wreck. It crashed on the afternoon of February 19 and burst into flames. The two pilots, Messrs. Rex Boyden and G. M... Shepherd, and two of the passengers, Messrs. R. Graham and W. Fountain, were killed instantly and were incinerated in the blazing machine. ,Mr. J. Westray escaped injury and set out for help. His body was found a mile from the,aeroplane at the foot of a cliff over which he evidently had fallen.

• The two survivors, Messrs. J. Binstead of Manly, and J. Proud, of Sydney, are apparently in a bad way from exhaustion. Mr. Binstead is unhurt, but Mr. Proud has a fractured leg. ' . .■ TARTY TO THE RESCUE. Bernard O'Eeilly, a guest-house pro-, prietor, who found the wrecked aeroplane, immediately rode to the nearest habitation. and gave the information, which eventually reached the Brisbane, police. He is leading a contingent at expert bushmen .to the spot. Before returning for help he made tea for the survivors and left with them a small quantity of food.

O'Reilly described how, following a conviction that the aeroplane had gone no further than the Macpherson Range, he searched on Saturday afternoon and Sunday through exceptionally rocky country. He had sighted a'burnt patch on the Lamington plateau, some miles away, and was ; making towards it when he heard a "cooee" across a gorge. Further cries guided him to.the spot, where he saw the wreckage of the aeroplane and the two survivors. One man was lying on the ground and the other was sitting up. They had been scratching last messages with a pocketknife on pieces of metal. STRUGGIE TO SAFETY. O'Reilly said that the men had no food but had been able to get water from a creek about a mile away. They had no idea where ..they were, and considered that their only chance was to wait until they were found. The tattered state of -theu clothing, and burns, showed that they had struggled from the aeroplane after Mt crashed. They stated that Westray had insisted on going for help and that the others had been incinerated. ' ■ - Before returning for the relief party O'Reilly followed Westray's tracks and found his body- > . ~ There are thirty, members ln.tne relief party, including a doctor. They anticipate that/they will have to carry Messrs. Binstead and Proud twelve miles through scrub, and in doing this they will have to descend 3000 feet.

The Stinson airliner left Brisbane for Sydney in stormy weather at 1 p.m. on February- 19. Mr. Proud belongs to Sydney, Mr. Westray was a member of Lloyd's, London, and Mr. Fountain was a New York architect who has been supervising the building of a theatre in Brisbane. Mr. Binstead, of Manly, one of the survivors, was flying under the name of J. Barnett because his1 wife was.nervous of air travel and he did hot want her to know he was making the trip.