RAPID CONSUMPTION OF FUEL SUPPLY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26544, 20 August 1947, Page 5

RAPID CONSUMPTION OF FUEL SUPPLY

Rec. 10 p.m. HONOLULU, Aug. 18. Captain Thomas Rider, navigator of the wrecked Super-Fortress suggested to-day that a “ gas hungry ” engine and head winds caused the disaster but he was unable to clear up definitely the mystery of the rapid exhaustion of the fuel supply. He said that the pilot, Captain K. R. Still, considered trying to reach Kauai, north-west of Oahu, and trying to land on the beach, but abandoned the idea and instead chanced “ ditching ” the aircraft. They carried 3190 gallons of petrol when they left Kwajalein, normally enough for 15 hours 45 minutes of flight, or about a three-hour safety margin. The pilot probably figured that the fuel gauges were wrong whan they first showed a lpig drop. One engine, which had been replaced on Guam, was the first to fail before the crash. It might have been eating more than its share of petrol. Its consumption was not checked after the Guam test flight because the plane apparently had plenty of fuel to spare for the journey. In the murkyi squally night, none of the crew could see the surface of the water and knew nothing of surface wave and wind conditions.