WIDE AREA OF SEARCH.

Otago Witness, Issue 3853, 17 January 1928, Page 27

WIDE AREA OF SEARCH.

TWO WARSHIPS GOING OUT. AUCKLAND, January 12. In view of the wide extent of area over which search for. the missing airmen is to be made off the coast, the

cruiser Diomede will leave Auckland tomorrow morning to Assist the cruiser Dunedin, which sailed shortly before noon to-day.

The sloops Veron'ca and Laburnum will coal and stand by ready to go to sea if their services are required. The cruisers will co-operate in a search covering a wide area. The Dunedin and Diomede will both do 24 knots, the Dunedin being due in the search area at midday to-morrow, and the Diomede on Saturday morning.

CAPTAIN HOOD’S BROTHER

CONFIDENT ’PLANE HAS LANDED

SYDNEY, January 12. Captain Hood's brother, who is a pilot in the Queensland aerial mail service, states that it was impossible for his brother to have sent the reported wireless messages, as •he did not know the Morse code. He added that he was confident that his brother and Lieutenant Moncrieff® effected a landing somewhere inland. It was their intention, if it was dark when they arrived off the coast, not to make for Trentham, but for one of the beaches. They evidently overshot their destination and landed somewhere in the Rimutakas. His brother knows the country well, and has flown over it, so was familiar with it from the air.

SIR KEITH SMITH’S VIEW.

WRONG TYPE OF ’PLANE.

MELBOURNE. January 12. Sir Keith Smith, referring to the flight, expressed himself as more than ever con vinced that such a flight should not have been undertaken except in an amphibian machine. He says that, although it was an all-metal machine, it does not necessarily mean that it would sink. Towards the end of the flight the petrol tanks would be at least three-quarters empty, and that would mean considerable buoyancy. There is a possibility that the machine may still be floating.

ANOTHER EXPERT’S OPINION.

MOST SUITABLE MACHINE. SYDNEY, January 12. Major de Haviland, who inspected the Aotea-roa at Melbourne, said that unless the machine developed defects on the journey he considered it equal to the task of crossing the Tasman. The ’plane impressed him as being most suitable for the flight, and, given ordinary luck, he could discover no reason why it should not reach its destination. If it had been forced to descend on the sea and made a good landing, it should float for some hours, particularly if the airmen were able to empty the petrol tanks Even if the machine crashed on the sea and the wings were broken it should float for two or three hours.

THE VISIBILITY EXCELLENT.

HOLMDALE OFFICERS INTERVIEWED. Captain Williams, of the Holmdale, which left Wellington on Tuesday night at 9 o’clock, and arrived in Dunedin °on Thursday’ afternoon, states that it w r as quite a sight to see great crowds all round the hills of the Empire City awaiting the looked for arrival of the airmen, and that there was a continual stream of motor cars running along the Hutt road to Trentham, and also many machines travelling up the hills to various vantage points. The officers of the Holmdale saw no trace of the aeroplane.

Mr Fred Abernethy, the third engineer of the Holmdale, is a personal friend of Lieutenant Moncrieff, and he, of course, followed the preparations for the '.light with- the keenest interest. Mr Abernethy, who has a thorough knowledge of the mechanism of aeroplane engines, states that it is a rather remarkable fact that the radial type of engine used on the aeroplane for the trans-tasman flight was displaced during the war by engines of the rotary principle: it was decided, in fact, that the radial engine was obsolete. Since the war, however, the radial engine has quite proved itself for longdistance flying, and it is the type that was used by Captain Cobham and Colonel Lindbergh in their world-famous flights. The weather was quite clear when the Holmdale left Wellington, and had the aeroplane then been within reach of the coast- the officers considered that the airmen should have had little difficulty in obtaining a landing. The visibility, indeed. .was excellent. Under the weather conditions it is difficult to understand how there could have been any misapprehension as to whether it was an aeroplane which was Seen in the air in the vicinity of Wellington or not.

SMOKE IN TARARUA RANGES.

NOT A BUSH FIRE. WELLINGTON, January 13. The Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Office to-night received the following message from the postmaster at Rongotea: “ Mr Stringer, foreman of the State forest service, reports that smoke is issuing from the Tararua Ranges approximately behind Levin, and is apparently a signal, not a bush fire.”

A later message has been received from the postmaster at Rongotea. as follows: “Mr Stringer reports that the fire is apparently at the foothills 42deg. magnetic bearing from the mouth of the Rangitikei River. He feels certain it is not a bush fire.”