AERIAL SEARCH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19372, 9 July 1937, Page 5

AERIAL SEARCH

MISSING FLYERS BIG EFFORT STARTING PLANES FROM WARSHIPS FAITH OF MR. PUTNAM CONFIDENCE IN SUCCESS (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Tress Assn.) (Reed. July 9, 11.15 a.m.) NEW YORK, July 8. The search for the missing flyers, Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam and Captain F..J. Noonan has so far been without definite results.

A report from San Francisco states that what the coastguard considered to be the most interesting amateur report, although doubting whether it was from Mrs. Putnam was received by an operator at Conrad, Montana, who heard a man's voice saying: "All's well," and then later giving the position 173 degrees west longitude and 5 degrees south latitude. A journalist listened in on another set and heard what apparently was a name, but it was indistinguishable.

The position given intersects the spot where it is now believed that the flyers are down.

Reports were circulated last evening that the United States warship Colorado had picked up the flyers. The warship, however, advised by wireless that the report was unfounded. . The Colorado yesterday commenced an aerial search in the neighbourhood of the Winslow Reef. The ship's three seaplanes were catapulted into the air. Admiral Murfin said that the lost plane was probably down in the Phoenix Islands group, provided it was forced down by lack of petrol and not by a sudden mishap.

First Quest Fruitless

The Australian Associated Press representative aboard tho Colorado sent a wireless message to the effect that the ship's three planes, after two hours of search on a course north of Winslow Reef, returned and reported they had seen no trace of the flyers.

The Colorado will probably be released from the search as soon as the Lexington arrives. The mine-sweeper Swan will remain, probably as a guard for fallen planes which need hoisting. The Coast Guard cutter Itasca, after refuelling from the Colorado, will continue the search in the south-west of Howland Island. The Phoenix Islands cover an area of 36,000 square miles, and, including the Howland Island area, comprise 300,000 miles which can be searched. Ninety planes from the naval seaplane carrier Lexington, which will arrive on Monday, can cover 36,000 miles in six hours of flying. Mrs. Putnam's husband has cancelled his earlier plans to fly from San Francisco to Honolulu. "I can do just as much here as I can in Honolulu," he said. Mr. Putnam Cheerful While the hope for Mrs. Putnam's safety sank to the lowest point since che disappearance of the flyers, Mr. Putnam remained cheerful. He reiterated his conviction that some of the numerous wireless signals were from her, and that the plane was somewhere grounded in the Phoenix Islands. Speaking with pressmen, he momentarily touched on the possibility of her death./ It was the way she would have chosen, he said. It was to have been her last flight of major importance, but she had no premonition of disaster. Her messages from Africa expressed delight over her performance. Mr. Putnam's confidence in his wife's rescue increased with the Colorado's search, despite the fact that it was at first fruitless. "I have not in the least given up hope," he said. "The actual search has just started now that the Colorado's planes are on the job. The plane is on the land if, as the experts believe, Saturday's and Sunday's carrier signals are authentic. The plane will, therefore, be found as the search from the air broadens with the arrival of the Lexington, if not before."

Letter from Captain Noonan

Mrs. Noonan to-day received *a package of pictures from Venezuela and a letter from Java from her husband. The letter praised Mrs. Putnam. "Amelia is a grand person for such a trip," it says. "She is the only woman flyer with whom I would care to make such a trip, because, in addition to being a fine companion, she can take hardships as well as a man and work like one." The New York publicist, Mr. Walter Lippmann, said: "The best things of mankind are as useless as Mrs. Putnam's adventure. They are things undertaken, not for a definite measurable result, but because someone, not counting the costs or calculating the consequences, is moved by curiosity, love of excellence, point of honour or compulsion to invent or to understand. They have free and useless energy with which alone men surpass themselves. The Washington correspondent of the New York Times asked Mr. D. C. Roper, Secretary of Commerce, whether the Department of Commerce planned to forbid in future flights similar to that undertaken by Mrs. Putnam. He replied that it was the department's duty to aid the development of aviation, and future experimental flights would be judged on the merits and ability of the applicants to carry them out. The department was now considering an application by Jimmie Mattern for permission to make a flight from San Francisco to Moscow, via the North Pole. A message from Honolulu says that the Matson liner Monterey passed east of the Phoenix Islands on Friday and a special watch was kept for Mr& Putnam, but without result.

LOOK-OUT REQUESTED

ALL SHIPS IN AREA

(Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, last night

The New Zealand Government has received through the British Ambassador at Washington, Sir Ronald Lindsay, a request from the United States Government that H.M.S. Achilles, which is in the Pacific, and other ships under New Zealand control should endeavour to intercept wire-

less messages from Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam.

The United States Government has also expressed a hope that all other ships at sea will keep a lookout. The New Zealand Government has intimated that it desired to offer its co-operation in the search and the ships under the control of this Government and ships at sea have been instructed to keep a lookout for the aeroplane and to intercept signals.