AVIATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 April 1937, Page 7

AVIATION

R.A.F. DOUBLE TRAGEDY. [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] (Received April 9, Noon). LONDON, April 8. The Royal Air Force machine, missing from Edinburgh, has been found near Dumfries, destroyed by fire. The pilot and observer are dead. This makes the nineteenth fatal Royal Air Force accident this year, the death-roll being thirty. BRISBANE TO CAPE TOWN. (Recd. April 9,2 p.m.) BRISBANE, April 9. Mrs Bonney left this morning for Longreach, on the first stage of her flight to Cape Town. She will make the flight in easy stages, the longest hop being 760 miles. JAPANESE ’PLANE ATHENS, April 8. The Divine Wind arrived from Baghdad, CLIPPER RESUMES. AUCKLAND, April 9. The Pan-American radio station, Auckland, received advice that the clipper left Pago Pago at 5.14 a.m. for Kingman Reef. The second hop of the flight from New Zealand to America. The latest report states that splendid progress is being made, and the clipper had passed over the Equator. TRANS-ATLANTIC SERVICE. WASHINGTON, April 7. The Bureau of Air Commerce announced that the deadlock which has held up negotiations between Imperial Airways and Pan-American Airways for the operation of a transAtlantic airline has been settled, and the last diplomatic obstacle removed. The terms of the agreement are withheld temporarily. It is understood that the submission of tenders for mail contracts will be considered and test flights will be made shortly. JEAN BATTEN (Recd. April 9. 8 a.m.). SYDNEY, April 8. Jean Batten was the guest of the Royal Empire Society, to-night, the president. Sir Hugh Denison, paying tribute to her flying achievements, which had placed her on a pedestal the world over. Miss Batten, in the course of her address, said she never fully realised until she began flying, what it lheant to be a member of the British race. She also found that whatever the country visited. British prestige was paramount. She expressed the hope that, civil aviation, both in Australia and Zealand, would be separated from the Defence Departments in order to permit civil aviation to progress as it should.