NO SIGN OR SOUND

Northern Advocate, 22 May 1929, Page 5

NO SIGN OR SOUND

AVIATORS’ DISAPPEARANCE

DIVERGENCE PROM COURSE. OP TIMOR LANDING. (Australian Press Association.) (Received 8.54 a.m.) SYDNEY, May 21. Amalgamated Wireless, in response to the Federal Government’s request, got their Darwin station to communi- . cate. with Koepang, and Dilly regarding the missing but those places had mo fresh news whatever. ,The steamer Malabar found no trace of the aviators and resumed her ~ voyage;, „ . No reply has been received from Atamboea (Timor Island) about the ayiators.

Mrs Moir and her daughter are still hopeful that their .son and brother, who is about 30 yearn of age, will be found alive. They live just outside Sydney, at Cahleyvale. Flying-Officer Ow r en’s father lives at Warrnambool, Victoria. He has not seen his son, who is aged 27, since last September, when he left Lome to make, arrangements for the England lo Auistralia flight. Sir Keith Smith received a cablegram, from Koepang stating that when Moir .and Owen were over Koepang on' Saturday they were flying in a north-north-east direction, which is almost,

at right angles with that which they should have taken if coming to Australia,. 0

•Sir Keith is of opinion that there is Still a chance of the fliers, owing to the slow speed they were then making, having decided to land somewhere oh Titnor Island other than Atam-, boea, possibly on the beach, in which case it would be some time before they Were discovered or got into touch With communication. SMALLER propeller. VICKERS MYSTIFIED. FLOATING POSSIBILITY. (Australian Press Association.) (Received 10.50 a.m.) LONDON, May 21. Vickers .have cabled Sir Keith Smith asking him to associate them in the search , for the missing airmen, with Authority to expend £2OOO.

In -a special interview with the Aus tfalian Press Association, the wellknown, Vickers expert, Captain Aeland, ~ sgid tha’t the. Vie-kers-Velore .machine did not cany,a collapsible • boat or lifesaving suits. ; • , Asked whether, in the event of alighting on the sea, fhc machine would float,. Captain Aeland said that the 500-gallon petrol, tank was not fitted, with a quiick-emptying device. It Wati unlikely to ■be empty when, they came down, but perhaps would be halffilled, in which case it would give the Machine sufficient buoyancy to, float fiir 24 hours. This, of course, presupposed a’smooth sea and that the machine 'Was not damaged in ' a forced descent.

Captain Aicland was puzzled at the stioly : of rising a' smaller propeller, because when Moir and Owen crashed at Mem Matruh the Arm sent out another spare of standard size and was never advised that the aviators, had picked up an emergency propeller. The only possible explanation was that both the standard ones were damaged by Incessant rainstorms, necessitating the acquisition of another en route; but this was not mentioned, as would have, been expected in any of Moir’s despatches to. London.

’ The' newspapers here are folloiwing the search with sympathetic interest and are publishing maps showing the perils of the last lap. :

'Advices from Batavia state that if the aviators landed anywhere in the archipelago the Dutch air authorities would have been informed long since. The firm made the official statement that there was no truth whatsoever in the report that the Vellore was furnished with a propeller of smaller diameter than usual or . otherwise experimental. Moir carried two, one on the engine and the other aboard the aeroplane. . These were identical in diaffieter and all other respects, iwith the exception of the fact that the spare which was used, in the last stages of the flight had one degree more .pitch, for the reason that it had been proved tha.t, propellers of a pitch •which was suitable .to temperate condition's revolve,too fast ip the tropics.