Pilot’s Swim For Life

Northern Advocate, 3 January 1936, Page 5

Pilot’s Swim For Life

— - MEDITERRANEAN , DRAMA WAS PETROL SUPPLY EXHAUSTED? f United Press Association.-By Electric Telegraph .- Copyright. ] (Received 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, January 2. Pilot Wilson, the sole survivor of the Imperial Airways plane, City of Khartoum, has now told a thrilling story of his five-hour swim before he wasi rescued. - With a member of the crew and two passengers, whose identity he did not know, he got clear of the plane, and struck out for the shore when it appeared fruitless that any others had survived. The quartette remained together for some time, but then separated in the darkness. Wilson did not see the others again. He swam around until he reached a buoy, but was unable to keep a grip of it and swam on till he reached the harbour wall. His attempt to climb it failed, as the barnacles lacerated his hands, and he feared that if he persevered he would be dashed unconscious by the waves. Just when he felt that he was unable to hold out any longer, he saw the lights of H.M.S. Brilliance, whose crew heard his cries for help. Why So Long in Air? Aeronautical experts 9 are wondering why the City of Khartoum was 5 hours 20 minutes in the air when the journey from the Gulf of Mirabello, in Crete, normally takes 4 hours. It is not known how much fuel she carried, when she left the Gulf, and her exceptionally long journey may have exhausted, her petrol. This would explain the reported simultaneous failure of all the engines. , The “Daily Express” paints out that Wilson’s report should shed considerable light on air disasters, as there is no similar case of a pilot surviving the total destruction of a plane and the loss of all its passengers and crew. The three engines have been recovered from the wreck, which was found underwater, but salvage operations have had to be suspended owing to high seas.