HAZARDOUS LANDING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26471, 27 May 1947, Page 5

HAZARDOUS LANDING

AIRLINER’S ENGINE FAILS

MOTORISTS’ HELPING HAND

SYDNEY, May 26

A Douglas Dakota airliner, carrying 21 passengers, last night flew 100 miles on one engine, circled Dubbo for half an hour, and made an emergency landing in. heavy rain at the third attempt. The starboard engine cut out during a violent storm about 100 miles from Dubbo. The pilot immediately radioed Dubbo airport that he would have to make an emergency landing, and asked the airport officials to stand by.

While the airport staff lit a line of flares to indicate .the landing strip, the local radio station broadcast an appeal to motorists to drive their cars to the airport so that the lights could be used as an aid to landing. Over 200 motorists answered the appeal, and parked their cars on each side of the strip with headlights shining across it. Many of them were bogged when they left the tarmac. v The plane made a faultless landing. The passengers in the plane, which was bound from Charlesville (Queensland), to Sydney, did not know the engine had failed until the plane landed. The pilot said that the last few miles of the flight were made in zero visibility He used a radio compass to check his position in relation to Dubbo broadcasting station, and found the airport by means of a dull glow reflected on the rain clouds by the flares and headlights.