FLYING BOAT MISSING.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13181, 13 February 1936, Page 5

FLYING BOAT MISSING.

TRANS ATLANTIC MACHINE.

WEATHER HAMPERS SEARCH. United Press Assn.—By Electric T elegr a ph—Copyright. DAKAR, February 11. Aeroplanes, patrol boats and steamers are searching the stormy Atlantic for the four-engined Air France flying-boat Ville de Buenos Aires which is missing on a non-stop flight from Natal in the regular mail service. She has a crew of five and one passenger and is commanded by Captain Ponce, who has made 22 crossings.

The machine sent a wireless message at 3.50 p.m. on Monday after passing St. Paul's rocks that visibility was poor and conditions difficult and that she was proceeding to Dakar at an altitude of 500 feet. Since then she has not been reported. There is slender hope that the machine is still afloat, but the weather is hampering the search.

A MIRACULOUS ESCAPE. SYDNEY, February 12. _ W hen a- new Gipsy Moth aeroplane piloted by Rex Nicholls was landing at Mascot aerodrome this evening tlx© machine struck a fence near the hangar, overturned, and burst into flames. Nicholls was thrown clear and .stunned, hut a passenger named P. Hoskins was trapped and in grave peril when another pilot named Goodsen rushed to the scene and cut Hoskins’ salety belt and enabled him to escape. Goodsen was badly burned and is in hospital. The machine was completely destroyed. Nicholls will be recalled as the pilot who flew the Tasman.