MISSING AIR LINER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 30 March 1931, Page 5

MISSING AIR LINER

THE SOUTHERN CLOUD BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN LOST AT SEA (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph— Copyright) MELBOURNE, 29th March. Exports are now almost convinced Unit the Southern .Cloud was lost at sea. Several people confidently assert that they saw a Fokker ’plane east of Malvern. No other Fokker was in the air at the time. Hie steamer Laranah reports that at 5.10 on Saturday evening a multiengined plane circled Ihe ship midway between Gellibrand lighthouse and the heads. The ship’s company were unaware ol the significance of the incident until they reached Launceston and read the reports in the newspapers.

WOMA N‘ S ST A TEM EN T (Received 30th March, 10.5 a.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. A woman at Port Arlington states that she saw a large ’plane dive into Port Phillip late on the Saturday afternoon of the disappearance of the" Southern Cloud. Significantly wreckage was sighted in the vicinity when a ’plane search was undertaken yesterday. Pilot Mollison, on the Southern Moon, searched the bay, and whilst off Port Arlington the observer in the ’plane signalled him to return. The observer later said lie felt sure he had seen what appeared to bo the wing of a ’plane at the bottom of the bay.