GREAT FLIGHT ENDED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18827, 30 September 1924, Page 7

GREAT FLIGHT ENDED.

AMERICANS' SUCCESS/

ARRIVAL AT . Seattle; : . COMPLETE CIRCUIT OF GLOBE. By Telegraph—Copyright. ; (Received 8.55 p.ra.l ' - ' Eeuter. NEW YORK. Sept. 23. The United iStates ■ round the-world fliers, under Lieut. Lowell H. Smith, arrived at Seattle at 1.36 p.m. to-day from Eugene, Oregon. •: • {■ ■; :; ~-..." Thp airmen thus completed the circuit of the globe which they set out to accomplish on March 17. CAPT. MACLAREN'S VENTURE " A PURE JOY -RIDE." LONDON. Sept. 20. " It was a joy-ride pure and simple, and was begun just as one might take a motor ride. I had no help from the Government; the thing was entirely unofficial. It was my idea of a holiday." The speaker was Captain MacLaren, who, with Flying-Officer Plender-Leith and Sergeant Andrews, arrived at Liverpool to-day. He was referring to his attempted flight round the world. Captain McLaren, who, with his wife later journeyed to London, added: "I would have taken Mrs. MacLaren with me, but for the fact that it was attempting something just slightly more dangerous than the normal." He added that he was perfectly satisfied with the route selected, and would follow it again if he made another attempt. Nothing but sheer bad luck prevented the flight being successful. The world's worst fogs are those of the Behring Sea," said the flight leader. " They compelled us to fly at 4ft above the water. We accomplished 13,000 miles, and if we could have got through 200 miles of fog the remaining 10,000 miles would have, been easy." Captain MacLaren flew eastward via Italy, Athens, Cairo, India, Burma, and Japan. He met i with extraordinary difficulties and ill-luck, had numerous narrow escapes from death, and finally, came to grief in a fog at Nikolsk, Kamschatka. Repairs were impossible, and he was forced to abandon his venture.