PLUCKY GIRL FLIER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21468, 17 April 1933, Page 9

PLUCKY GIRL FLIER

ADVENTURE IN INDIA DESCENT ON A MARSH RESCUED BY TRIBESMEN TO KARACHI IN A LORRY By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received April 16. 5.5 p.m.) CALCUTTA. April 15 News of the safety of Miss Jean Batten, the Auckland girl who left Lympne, Kent, last Sunday on a flight to Australia, was received to-day. There had been no news of her since she left Bagdad on Wednesday. It transpires that after leaving Bagdad for Bushire, Persia, Miss Batten was marooned in the wastes of Baluchistan. She was succoured by friendly tribesmen who escorted her to Bela, capital of that province. The girl flier arrived at Karachi in a motor-lorrv provided by British officials. The journey had taken nearly 12 hours over rough tracks. Miss Batten encountered a very bad sandstorm when flying over the Persian Gulf. Her machine " steeplechased " over hills, crevasses and wild country. Finally, she saw a flat piece of country and landed, only to find that it was marshy ground. The aeroplane tilted and the propeller was broken. The girl's pluck was shown by the fact that shortly after her arrival at Karachi she wanted to return in the motor-lorry to her stranded machine with a new propeller. However, a member of the Aero Club offered to take her this morning. Miss Batten's time (four and a-half days to India) is the best achieved yet by a woman on a flight from England to Australia. The girl flier could not locate her machine though she made reconnaissance flights to-day. Finally she went in a car to Bela. The position, therefore, is that she cannot hope to beat the international record for the flight. However, she intends to carry on as soon as her machine is disco\ered.