KINGSFORD SMITH

Evening Star, Issue 21005, 20 January 1932, Page 9

KINGSFORD SMITH

ARRIVAL AT DARWIN FLIGHT GONTIHUED Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. 1 ' DARWIN, January 19. Air-commodore Kingsford Smith arrived at 1.46 this afternoon (local time). He started from Koepang yesterday, but had to return owing to bad weather. / He left again at 7.50 this morning. A PERFECT LANDIHG GLAD TO GET BACK. DARWIN, January 19. Kingsford Smith made a perfect landing in perfect weather. He said that Koepang was fearfully muddy and the grass was very long. It needed 200 natives to pull the plane out of the mud before it could move. He was bitterly disappointed at having to turn back yesterday, but he feared a landing at Darwin in the dark. He lightened the plane and discarded everything that was not absolutely necessary. He also carried a minimum of petrol when he was crossing the Timor Sea to-day. As he passed over the steamer Marella he saluted her. He was glad to get back to Australia again and so were his crew. He received a message from the civil aviation authorities congratulating him on bis safe transport of the mails both ways. The total weight of the mails he is bringing is 7131 b, He expects the trip to show a slight profit. When he was questioned about rumours in Sydney that he would possibly be a candidate for the East Sydney Federal seat, Kingsford Smith replied that he had no intention of entering the political arena. He said he would attend Signor Mussolini’s conference of aces if he happened to be in Rome in May. ■- A FRESH RECORD RUGBY, January 19. (Received January 20, at noon.) By reaching Port Darwin twelve and a-half days after leaving England Kingsford Smith has established a fresh record for the journey in a commercial machine.