FLIGHT OF THRILLS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 10475, 4 January 1928, Page 5

FLIGHT OF THRILLS

AN TO I NAT NEARLY FALLS INTO SEA.

CURSED AND BEATEN BY PEASANTS.

BEIRUT, Dec. 31. Antoinat gives thrilling details of his experiences. “Directly we left Rome,” he says, “we were blown far out of our course over the Mediterranean. The cold was so terrible that the pilot fainted and another replaced him. For hours we battled with storm and fog trying io reach Athens. Tho petrol tanks were almost dry when iye were able to land in Adaiia where the Turks arrested us on a charge that we had flown over Smvrna.

“\Ve started again in the teeth of a raging storm and were tossed to and fro. As the plane lurched about one of the left stays snapped and the machine tilted sidewards and plunged towards the waves. When a few feet above the water the plane straightened and we were just able to land on the shore near Messina. “A large mob of armed peasants cursed and heat us and refused us food and water. Ultimately ihe French Consul came to the rescue and not a moment too soon as the peasants were just about to burn the plane.”

“The crew re-started on Christmas morning despite the exhaustion from which they were suffering. We reached Alexandria, hut it is little short of a miracle that the aeroplane survived the buffeting of the storms.”—A. and N.Z.C.A.