MRS MILLER MISSING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21197, 1 December 1930, Page 9

MRS MILLER MISSING

PLANE LONG OVERDUE. . f .' EXTREMELY ROUGH WEATHER. - NEW YORK, November 28. (Received Nov, 30, at 5.5 p.m.) A message from Miami states that four planes have left in search of Mrs Miller, who is. several hours overdue on her return flight from Havana to Miami. Havana also reports that two planes left to join in the search for the missing aviatrix. < ■ A later message states that a PanAmerican Airways plane returned late this afternoon without finding trace of Mrs Miller. .... . Mrs Miller’s, representatives.state that she had a six; hours’ supply of petrol. A premonition of death, which she thrust aside through fear of being thought a coward, haunted Mrs Keith Practically all hope of finding her alive has been abandoned. Search parties in six planes here and Miami have flown for hours'without finding a trace. Her friends here accuse themselves for not having prevented her, forcibly if necessary, from making the flight in a poorly conditioned plane and extremely" rough weather. “ I do not know why’ if is, but something tells me I am going down,” she said before the take-off. “1 have had that feeling since I crossed from Florida, and somehow or other I cannot shake it off.” She called her_ plane an " unair worthy crate,” explaining that it was a conditionally licensed ship that she had rescued from a junk pile and reconditioned. “I am trying to put myself over as a commercial pilot, and if I make a flight like that in- the old ship without the usual equipment it ought to be • easy to get some company interested in using me as a regular pilot.” ; Many who came into contact with Mrs , Miller jiere remarked that what worried her most was the lack of blind flying instruments and a turn and bank indicator, Mrs Miller said: "Frankly, I cannot afford one.” Referring to the- latter instrument, aviation officials who have returned from the search declare that not even a stout seaplane could have stayed afloat. She had a collapsible rubber boat, but she had expressed doubt about her ability to inflate it. Since coming to the United, States from Australia three years ago Mrs Miller had acted as a demonstrator of small' planes and amphibians, and she was instrumental in popularising aviation among women. A message from Pittsburg states that Captain Lancaster, who accompanied Mrs Miller on the flight three years ago from London to Australia, said he thought she had been forced down at sea, and he expressed the fear that she must be afloat somewhere between Cuba and the Florida .coast in the collapsible rubber boat which she carried. Backers of Mrs Miller’s PittsburgHavaiia flight express the hope that she might have landed somewhere in Florida. A RAY OF HOPE. MAY BE IN ISOLATED SPOT. NEW YORK, November 28. (Received Nov. 30, at 5.5 p.m.) A message from 1 Havana states that there is a possibility that . Mrs Miller did not attempt to reach Miami, A reporter of a local newspaper, in a statement, said he saw the aviatrix on Friday night, and she told him that she would land at Miami if the weather was favourable, but otherwise she would continue north as far as possible. She had fuel for a nine hours’ flight, and the distance across the gulf is not far. It is felt by some that she has reached the United States at a point where communication is difficult. Mr John Liggett, one of the backers of Mrs Miller, left by passenger plane to fly to Miami to assist in the search for the missing airwoman.