INDIA FLIGHT FAILS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19799, 21 November 1927, Page 9

INDIA FLIGHT FAILS.

MACHINE WRECKED. AIRMEN HOT INJURED. CRASH OVER POLAND. REPORT FROM HINKLER. VENTURE ABANDONED. &y Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received November 20, 8.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. * , LONDON. Nov. 19. Ihe first news of the missing airmen, •Captain R. H. Mcintosh and Mr. Bert .{Tinkler, who were on their way to India, •ria Central Europe and over the Himalayas, was contained in a report from Lemberg, Poland, that they had landed nt a town in Southern Poland, on Wednesday afternoon. It was later reported that they had resumed their Bight. A later message from Warsaw stated that the airmen were at Lemberg, where they went after an accident to their [plane, the Princess Xenia. They were «t. a hotel, where a representative of the Polish Telegraph Agency got into telephono communication with them at 2 a.m. on Saturday, but they refused to give any information regarding the accident. They said they had sent a telegraphic report to London Terrifying Experiences. A Sun message from Lemberg gives the story of tho flight, as related by Hinkler. Ho said that after flying for 24 hours through continuous snowstorms, they landed 10 milei inside the Polish frontier. They had previously estimated that they were near Astrakan, 1000 miles south of Moscow, and had covered 2800 miles. After passing Flushing they flew for 12 hours in darkness, through snowstorms. It was the most terrifying time the airmen had ever experienced. They repeatedly lost control when at a height *>f 5000 ft., and dia not regain control until they were a few hundred feet above the ground. Navigation was impracticable, as all landmarks were blotted out. They had to trust to the compass, and eventually were trapped • among mountains. They blindly flew up and down among valleys, and had to sharply bank every now and again to avoid the hillsides. Dawn showed a fogbank 8000 ft. up. The cold was intense and tho machine was covered with ice. Their frozen limbs militated against keeping control. Second Landing Made. They knew by dead reckoning that they must, be somewhere over Russia. They then decided to head for India. Three hours later, finding progress impossible, they turned back and sought a landing place. They lanced safely on a rough surfaco in a ploughed field near Podhajce, in Galicia, South Poland, watched by the populace of the village. Tho machine was escorted ori a farm waggon to the police station some miles distant. They were detained for some hours until an interpreter arrived, and the police were satisfied with their credentials. They Spent the next day In futile efforts to get a message through to England. With the iieip of the local residents the following day they took off again and flew in tie direction of Warsaw. When nearing Lemberg the weather became impossible and they were forced down and landed in a ploughed field. The<-machine fell forward on its nose. The wingtip crumpled, and the propeller blade snapped off. The airmen were shot out of their seats, but were not injured. High Speed for 24 Hours. ' The flight would have been successful, said Mr. Hinkler, if the weather had been better. They maintained a speed of 110 miles an hour for 24 hours. Another message says Hinkler and Mcintosh left the plane in the care of tho military authorities, to be sent to Lemberg, from which place, assisted by the British Consul, Lieu-tenant-Colonel J. J. Whitehead, they have entrained for London. The airmen are still in Lemberg, to which place they travelled in a train, accompanied by two men who were injured when the plane landed. They reported the accident to the British Consul and to the Polish authorities. COBHAM'S MISFORTUNE. GALE AND HEAVY MIST. RETURN TO SOUTHAMPTON. (British Official Wireless.) (Received November 19, 5.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. RUGBY. Nov. 17. Sir Alan Cobham was to have left Southampton this m6rning in his flyingboat for his African tour, but news that a gale was blowing at a velocity of 35 miles an hour in tho Channel caused him to postpone his departure. Ho later left Southampton, but a heavy mist forced him to return after 10 minutes. CROYDON TO THE CAPE. CARBERY DOWN IN FRANCE. AIRMAN RENOUNCES TITLE. (Received November 20, 7.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z.-Sun. LONDON. Nov. 19. Mr. John Carbery, by which name Lord Carbery chooses to be known since he became a naturalised American citizen, departed this morning from Croydon aerodrome, Surrey, accompanied by a mechanic, in a Fokker monoplane in an attempt to fly to Capetown in record time, via Cairo and Central Africa, and thence to Kenya Colony, where he is a large landowner. He was, however, forced to come down near Lyons. The airman later reached Marseilles. Baron Carbery, whose family name is John Evans-Freke, was born in 1892, and educated at Harrow and Cambridge. Ho was married in 1913 to Jose, daughter of Evelyn Metcalf, who divorced him in 1919. They have a daughter, born in 1916. He is tho tenth baron, and the barony was created in 1715. The heir . is the Hon. R. Evans-Freke, his younger brother.