STILL MISSING

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 22 October 1928, Page 5

STILL MISSING

THE ATLANTIC AVIATOR." SUGGESTIVE LIGHTS. REPORTED BY STEAMER. i ted Press Association —By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) (Australian Tress Association.) LONDON. Oct. 20. The extraordinary degree of hope for the safety of Commander MacDonald, who left Harbour Grace on Wednesday, attempting to fly the Atlantic in a Moth aeroplane, has been more or iess banished by the receipt of a message from Lloyds. It was picked up by the Port Ishead wireless station from the steamer Firach, via the steamers Schenectady and Caledonia, and read . “The Finacli sighted on Wednesday at 11.30 o’clock at a big distance lights, most probably resembling, an explosion.” o It is significant that the bearing given correspond very closely with , the position ' where MacDonald was sighted by the Hardenfburg. The time was also similar

It now seems certain that 'the airman was forced down soon after passing the Dutch steamer. The lights referred to- may have been an explosion on contact with the water or an attempt to attract the attention of vessels which MacDonald realised were in the vicinity. 1 There is universal sympathy for MacDonald’s wife, whose courage was equal to that of her husband. Late to-night, when the position was desperate, she said she still had hopes that he may land somewhere. She had spent practically a sleepless 48 hours, but broke down to-day and slept fitfully for a few hours.

Curiously enough the same hope was expressed by Air Marshal Sir Sefton Brancker. “I still have hopes that.Jis may be somewhere in Norway or thereabouts,” he said. He added that before the flight started he was prepared to bet 10 to I on MacDonald's success.

ORIGIN OF THE FLIGHT. ARTICLE BY MRS MacDONAbD. LONDON, Oct. 20. “ ‘Why did you.let him go?’ This,” writes Mrs MacDonald in a poignant article in the “Sunday Express” “is the question my woman friendis have been, asking ever since my husband started his flight. “My answer is: ‘When has the wife of an Englishman or the wife of a patriot of any country tried to dissuade her husband from an act of courage or of credit to his nation? Did Englishwomen try to prevent their men fighting in the war?’ “The affair began in a crowded restaurant after Colonel Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic. Two Americans were talking. ‘Yes,’ they said, ‘we have put it aeros» England.’ My husband, sitting _ nearby, overheard and formed a decision. “He planned a world flight and crashed in the desert. Failure seemed only to stimulate him. He bought a new machine and told me he was going away for the week-end. _ I only learned he had gone to America from friends, who accidentally saw him setting off from Paddington station. “The nexk news came in a few brief cables before he started the flight. Then there was silence until a friend handed me a, letter which my husband left to be given to me two days after the start of the flight. Thah letter is sacred. It was meant for men only, but some of it must be given to the would for his sake. “He wrote: ‘I know you are against it and I know people will say I am a suicidal fool, but I do not think it After all they called Lindbergh a flying fool. If .an * American could do il an Englishman can. If I have made a mistake, darling, I am sorry; it will be terrible for you! ” Mrs MacDonald adds that she will carry on her husband’s business as a yachting agent.