THE MISSING PLANE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21307, 11 April 1931, Page 11

THE MISSING PLANE

LOSS OF THE SOUTHERN CLOUD EVIDENCE AT INQUIRY (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) SYDNEY, April 10. (Received April 10, at 9 p.m.) The Federal Air Accidents Investigation Committee opened an inquiry into the loss of the Southern Cloud on March 21 with six passengers and two pilots. Flight-lieutenant C. T. Ulm, director of Australian National Airways, the owners of the plane, gave evidence that although the maximum load of the company’s aeroplanes was 10,2251 b, the total weight of the Southern Cloud on the day «f the disappearance was 10,0991 b, which was considered an ample safety margin in that respect. The decision whether any aeroplane should start or not if the weather was unfavourable, and the choice of route, were left absolutely to the pudgment of the pilot. He was not prepared to admit that such a,policy overloaded the pilots with responsibility. Witness emphasised that the ■ inspection of the company’s aeroplanes was going on the whole time, and the standard of inspection, he claimed, was the highest in the world. The company’s chief engineer went to England, and had 10 months’ experience in a factory in which triple-engine machines were built. The company also brought out four engineers who served a particular factory between Sydney and Melbourne. There were probably 100,000 square miles of country in which a big aeroplane like the Southern Cloud could not land without something being broken or damaged, but even if one engine failed the flight could be completed with the other two. The question of installing wireless in the company’s planes was now receiving attention. The company s aeroplanes had flown 671,000 miles since the inception of the service without' a single mishap.