MISSING SOVIET PLANE

Grey River Argus, 17 August 1937, Page 5

MISSING SOVIET PLANE

MAY BE ON POLAR ICE Alaskan Search Fruitless [Aust. & N.Z. Cable Assn.l NEW YORK, August 15. A Fairbanks (Alaska) message states that a disjointed radio .message reading, “No bearings, having trouble with waveband,” was picked up twenty-eight hours after the report that the plane had crossed the North Pole, was the only sign of life from the Soviet flyers. It is believed that they were forced down in the twelve hundred miles of frigid ocean between the Pole and Point Barrow, embracing the mysterious blind spots in which two previous trans-Polar Soviet planes lost touch with listeners for hours on end, owing to interference with the wireless transmission.

There is no serious fear, but a number of planes, including tnree bearing Russian agents, are searching from Fairbanks.

The brotherhood of the air is exemplified by the departure of Mattern for Fairbanks from Los Angeles at 9.30 p.m. on Saturday, in an effort to repay the act of mercy by Levanevsky, who led rescuers to Mattern, when' the latter cracked up in Siberia, in 1933. MOSCOW, August 15. The authorities are making elaborate arrangements for the discovery and rescue of the missing Soviet plane. They are despatching icebreakers and aeroplanes to the Polar regions. LATEST NEWS. (Received August 16, at 9.15 p.m.) . NEW YORK, August 16. Reports received, at mid-night from Alaska strengthen the belie that the missing Soviet plane has descended on the ice in the vicimtj of the pole. . Pan-American Airways representatives at Fairbanks have sent a radio message stating that a seap <.m < two landplanes have searched --r the Soviet plane without results. Thej searched over a distance c... *-’> miles, extending half way to the pole. The search planes landed at a number of settlements, and questioned the Esquimaux. ATLANTIC TRIALS. LONDON, August 15. Caledonia left Foynes for Newfoundland at 5.27 a.m. (British summer time). CALEDONIA COMPLETES FLIGHT. BOTWOOD (Newfoundland), ■ August 15. The British flying boat, Caledonia, arrived from Foynes, Ireland. BRITAIN’S AIR ARMAMENTS. LONDON, August 15. Britain now possesses 1,542 front line aircraft for home defence, increasing to 1,750 by March, 1939, besides 450 overseas for overseas setvice, and 450 for the fleet and Air arm, by that date. GLIDING FEAT. (Received August 16, at 7.45 p.m. LONDON, August 16. A glider crossed London for the first time, when P. A. Wills, the holder of th'e British long distance record of 105 miles, flew one hundred miles from Dunstable Downs to -Dover in four hour.