DI PINEDO'S MISFORTUNE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19607, 8 April 1927, Page 12

DI PINEDO'S MISFORTUNE.

MACHINE BURNT AND SUNK. CREW SAVED BY SWIMMING. FLIGHT HALTED UN AMERICA. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Receivod April 7, 5.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z, WASHINGTON, April 6. A message from Roosevelt Dam, Arizona, says the Marchess di Pinedo's aeroplane "Santa Maria" caught fire on Roosevelt Lake while it was being refuelled, and the giant twin-motored monoplane was destroyed. The Marchese was talking to newspaper men on the shore when a sudden blast was heard on the lake from the landing buoy, The big craft was instantly mass of flames. The mechanics who were adjusting the motors in preparation for the next leg of the flight leaped overboard and swam to safety, while the aeroplane burned furiously. Nobody was injured. Di Pinedo had come ashore only a short time before the disaster. lie had stayed with the craft out on the lake while the mechanics tuned up the engines and began refuelling with 300 gallons of petrol. The blast occurred just as the airman was outlining his plans for proceeding to San Diogo immediately, on a non-stop Bight of 40D miles. It is presumed that some of the gasoline which was being poured into the fuel tanks dripped on to some part of the heated engine and thus caused an explosion. All the members of the crew are safe, but the aeroplane is a total loss. Immediate efforts will be made to raise the engines, ,which are now at the bottom of Roosevelt Lake, at a dtepth of 60i't. The Assistant-Secretary of War, Mr. Davison, offered to the Marchese di Pinedo the full use of the United States Army aeroplane equipment and personnel, so that he might replace his burned machine and continue his flight until a new one could be shipped from Italy. The United States War Department has also cabled its regrets for the accident to the Prime Minister of Italy, Signor Mussolini. The Marchese thanked the. War Department for its offer, but said he would wait for a new aeroplane from Italy in which to resume his flight. The Marchese di Pinedo. who in 1925 flew to Australia and Japan ami back to Italy, via India, left the port of Elmas, in Sardinia, on February 13. He intended to fly via North Africa across the Atlantic to Brazil, which he did. and he went from there, via Para, at the mouth of the Amazon, to New Orleans, and was on his way to California when the accident happened in Arizona. His machine, the Santa Maria} is a Savoia seaplane (No. 55) equipped with two Italian Isotta-Frasehini "Asso" engines of 400 horse-power each. It is a flying-boat with two separate hulls arranged side iby side and joined above by the thick mon'oplane wing. The engines are mounted tandem above the centre of the wing. Each of the hulls can be arranged to accommodate five passengers, while the pilot *and engineer sit in the centre of the wing. The craft should lie very stable laterally on the water, and does not need wing-tip floats', but it is probably not easy to manoeuvre on the water. The maximum air speed is stated to be 210 kilometres per hour, and the landing speed ■9O k.p.h., so the machine has a good speed range.