STILL NO SIGN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19373, 10 July 1937, Page 15

STILL NO SIGN

TWO MISSING AVIATORS SOUGHT BY SHIPS OF WAR GUARDS DOUBT SIGNALS GRAVE FEARS OF FRIEND (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. July 9, 3 p.m.) NEW YORK, July 8. The Colorado and Itasca have reported by wireless that up till 6-30 o'clock this morning. Friday, Australian time, no results had been achieved in the search for the missing flyers, Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam and Captain F. .T. Noonan.

The Colorado’s planes covered a course south of Howland Island to reefs and sandbanks to the north of Winslow Reef yesterday, and to-day in the vicinity of Winslow Reef and the Phoenix Group and islands southward from Howland. The Itasca swung west of Howland and searched the south and east from that point. The Coast Guard headquarters state they are not convinced of the authenticity of any messages ostensibly from Mrs. Putnam after the last one received on Friday afternoon while the plane was still in mid-air.

The Navy Department has corrected the announcement concerning the Lexington’s aeroplanes. She has only 62 aboard.

The National Geographic Society’s scientists, who have just returned from the solar eclipse expedition to the Phoenix Group, stated that the prevalence of food and water on most of the islands there increased the chances of the survival of Mrs. Putnam and Captain Noonan if they had landed in the group. Mrs. Roosevelt’s Tribute Mrs. Roosevelt in a statement said: "I am told by people who have flown a lot that well-balanced persons like Amelia and Captain Noonan have a better chance of holding out under a long strain than amateurs. Amelia has poise and courage. She is a grand person. I do not think she would give up before the last ditch.’ Radio engineers state that Mrs. Putnam’s plane lacked one instrument which would be greatly needed in an emergency. Despite the elaborate other electrical instruments which the plane boasted it was not equipped for- communication with the Itasca on the standard steamship frequency of 500 kilocycles. That was the only transmitting wave length assigned to her on which it would be possible for the Itasca s direction-finder to take a bearing. She had wireless telephonic _ equipment which was subject to difficulty ovei very long distances and was not dependable for clarity. She would be unable to take her own bearings without this equipment. Mrs. Putnam explained that the decision to dispense with the transmitting wave length universally used by warships at sea was because she and Captain Noonan were not competent to send and receive messages in the radio code which alone is used on the 500 kilocycle band. A message from Bentonville, Arkansas, stales that Louise Thaden. the winner of the 1936 Bcndix Trophy, expressed the belief that Mrs. Putnam was dead. She and Mrs. Putnam had been closely associated in the past.