PINEDO’S HARD LUCK.

Grey River Argus, 8 April 1927, Page 5

PINEDO’S HARD LUCK.

MACHINE TAKES FIRE. Before Hop-off. NEW YORK, April 6. The giant double-motored monoplane in which the Marchese de Pinedo has been engaged on his world flight has been destroyed in Arizona. The accident happened at Roosevelt Lake. A message states:' “The flight of De Pinedo ended to-day, when the seaplane, Santa Maria, caught fire as she was refueling there, preparatory to hopping off for San Diego. De Pinedo and the crew are safe, but the machine is a total loss. Immediate efforts will be made to raise the engine, resting on the bottom of the Roosevelt Lake, at a depth of sixty feet. De Pinedo was talking to some newspaper men. on the shore, when a sudden blast was heard on the lake at the landing buoy, and the big ship was instantly a mass of flames. The mechanics, who were adjusting the motor in preparation for the next leg of the flight, leapt overboard and swam to- safety, while the plane burned furiously. Nobody was injured. De Pinedo had come ashore only a short time previous to the had stayed with the craft in the middle of the lake while the mechanics tuned up the engines, and began refueling with three hundred gallons of petrol The blast occurred just as the airman was outlining his plans for ♦proceeding to San Diego, immediately on a nonstop flight of four hundred miles. It was presumed that some gasoline being poured into the fuel tanks dripped on to part of the heated engine causing the explosion. x* U.S.A. HELP OFFERED, | DE PINEDO AWAITS NEW ITALIAN PLANE. (Received April 7 at 9.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 6. The Assistant Secretary to the United States War Division has offered the Marchese De Pinedo the full use of the United States Army plane equipment and personnel, in order to replace his burned plane, so as to enable the Italian airman to continue his flight till an Italian replacement plane can be shipped. The United States War Department has also cabled its regrets at the accident tp Signor Mussolini. The Marchese De Pinedo has thanked the War Department, but he announces that he will wait till the arrival of a new plane from Italy before he resumes his flight.