CRASHED AGAIN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 23 April 1934, Page 5

CRASHED AGAIN

MISS JEAN BATTEN ENGLAND-AUSTRALIA FLIGHT SLIGHT INJURIES SUSTAINED (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, 21st April. The New Zealand airwoman, Miss Joan Batten, left Lynipne for New Zealand at 4.55 in the morning. She was wearing a leather jacket with the New Zealaud flag as a muillor and carried three mascots, including a pieee of lion's hone. She said it would he silly to try for a record with a four-year old machine. She had to go home to see her father, and hying was the nicest way of doing it. LONDON, 22nd April. Miss Jean Batten left Marseilles at 2.45 o’clock on Saturday afternoon foe Rome on her flight to Australia and New Zealand.

MACHINE BADLY DAMAGED ROME, 22nd April. Miss Batten crashed just outside the walls of Rome. She suffered-a cut lip and shock, hut otherwise was unhurt. The machine was badly damaged. She lost her way after crossing the French frontier and consequently the 'plane’s fuel was exhausted when she found herself near Rome. She was forced to land in a field near the famous Basilica of St. Paul. She was thrown from the cockpit. Officials from a nearby wireless station extricated her from the wreckage and took her to the Red Cross Hospital, where she was interviewed. She said: “I am very lucky. I feel nouo tho worse for my adventure. I am in bed not because I feel unable to get up, hut because my clothes are torn and I have nothing to put on. 1 do not know whether my machine is repairable.”

TO CONTINUE JOURNEY A MIRACULOUS ESCAPE (Received 23rd April, noon.) ROME, 22nd April. "I am getting a new propeller from London to resume my flight in a few days” declared .Miss Jean Batten. She said she struck bad weather after leaving Marseilles and drifted towards Corsica. in a head wind and heavy rain. She managed to turn inland and found tho mouth of the Tiber which she followed to Rome, where the petrol became exhausted. She was forced to land in darkness, and had a miraculous escape as the field was full of aerial wires.

STILL SMILING (Received 23rd April, 1.25 p.m.) LONDON, 22nd April. In an interview by long-distance telephone Miss Batten told the “Sketch” that about midnight she found she had only enough petrol left for five minutes flying She saw a field below her, but i't had a tree in the centre, two 90-foot wireless masts on one side and high tension wires oil the other side. There was no other place to land so she was forced to pancake the machine and try tu avoid as much damage as possible. . „,, , A local airman said Miss Batten only managed to land alive because she kept her head. “.[ am still smiling and am not tired despite sixteen hours in the air,” she said.

Miss Batten crashed last year during a similar attempt. She is the daughter of Dir F. H. Batten, dentist, Auckland. She is 24 years of age and holds a commercial pilot’s and ground engineer’s licences. She learned to fly London Aero Club, and a year ago attempted the flight to Australia, using a Moth that had previously belonged to the Prince of Wales. Forced to land by a sandstorm in Baluchistan, the machine came, down on marshy ground and tipped over on its nose. She then rode 27 miles on camel’s hack to Las Belji, escorted by tribesmen over rugged country, in the moonlight. Site was then driven to Karachi in a motor-lorry, and on the resumption of the flight) three days later, made a forced landing three miles from Karachi, sand from the storm having penertated the engine. She had no option but to land down-wind, on a winding road, and the machine struck a wall and somersaulted.