AIRLINER TRAGEDY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 46, 23 January 1939, Page 7

AIRLINER TRAGEDY

IN MID-ATLANTIC.

TEN SURVIVORS RESCUED

SHIP’S DRAMATIC PART. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) NEW YORK, Jan. 21. With eight passengers and five of a crew aboard the Imperial Airways Bermuda flying-boat Cavalier was forced down by bad weather and engine failure due to ice accumulation at 1.13 p.m., midway between New York and Bermuda. A minute after reporting a safe landing, her radio operator ended a starkly dramatic story of the fight to keep the ’plane aloft with the one ominous word, “Sinking.”

Searching turbulent seas with her searchlight the Standard oil-tanker Esso Baytown, shortly before midnight, picked up 10 survivors of the 13 persons aboard the flying-boat. The survivors had clung to rubber lifebelts for 10 hours. The other three weakened and are believed to have been drowned.

The survivors indicate that the ’plane sank 10 minutes after alighting on the water.

GRAPHIC NARRATIVE.

The Cavalier’s path- to disaster was recorded in the following terse messages by radio:—l2.23 p.m., “Running into bad weather; may have to land”; 12.37 p.m., “Still in bad weather"; 12.57 p.m., “All engines failing. Ice. Altitude 1500 feet. Forced landing in a few minutes”; 1.7 p.m., “Still have two motors going; trying to get others started”; 1.11 p.m., “Landing now” ; 1.12 p.m., “Landed okay. Switch off. Stand by”; 1.13 p.m., “Sinking.” Nothing further was heard. It is presumed that ice in the carburettors caused the engine failure. The Cavalier had been engaged in the New York-Bermuda service since 1937. Her veteran captain, Mr M. Rowland Anderson, flew in the LondonAustralia service till April. Others in the all-British crew were: Messrs Neil Richardson (first officer), Patick Chapman (radio officer), and Robert Spence and David Williams (stewards). Of the eight passengers five were men and three women. Five were Americans and three Bermudans. The Americans included the wealthy head of the New York Auction Company, Mr J. Gordon Noakes, and his wife. He was recently honoured by a transcontinental airline, for having travelled 100,000 miles in its ’planes. His wife was making her first flight. The latest report says it is feared that the drowned are Messrs Noakes, Donald Miller, of Nebraska, and one of the stewards (Mr Spencer). The survivors state that they let. go their hold of the lifebelts. Mr Miller was travelling with his wife. The master of the Esso Baytown radioed that, when the tanker reached the position indicated in the 5.0.5., voices were heard calling out of the darkness to the eastward. A boat was launched and got the survivors aboard. They were suffering severely from exposure and shock. The tanker made an urgent call for medical aid and the American gunboat Erie arrived at 1 a.in. She vainly tried for three hours to get her doctor aboard. The coastguard cutter Champlain finally succeeded in transferring a pharmacist and mate. The tanker is returning to port at full speed. RACE TO RESCUE.

A number of aircraft, eight coastguard cutters, 12 steamships, two British destroyers, an American gunboat and the Vincent Astors’ yacht Nourmahl, raced to the rescue. One aeroplane and a steamship reached the scene at nightfall, but, according to an earlv report, could not find the machine or any survivors. It was feared that the hull of the ’plane had been damaged while landing on the rough sea. The Cavalier’s seats were designed for conversion into life-rafts. _ . A Navy blimp, carrying hfe-ratts, jackets and flares, left Lakehurst at midnight, and nine army “flying fortress” bombers, similarly equipped were due to take off before dawn to comb the area. Pilots who were out to-night reported hazardous conditions with ice forming on the wings.