SEARCH FRUITLESS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19373, 10 July 1937, Page 5

SEARCH FRUITLESS

TWO MISSING FLYERS QUEST BY SEAPLANES RESCUE POSSIBILITIES HOPES OP ADMIRAL BYRD (Eire. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. July 10. noon) SAN FRANCISCO, July 9. The seaplanes belonging to the United States warship Colorado yesterday scouted McKean Island and the water between the northernmost tip of the Phoenix Islands and McLean Island, but the pilots were unable to find any trace of the lost American flyers, Mrs Amelia Earhart Putnam and Captain F. J, Noonan.

The weather was ideal and the visibility perfect. The battleship’s searchlights are sweeping the sea at night.

Amateur radio operators continue to provide the major excitement in the. search.. An.employee of the Hilo, Hawaii, airport reported that he had heard voices and messages from Mrs Putnam and Captain Noonan asking for aid and stating that they cannot hold out much longer, and a reply ostensible from the Itasca: “Please hold out a little while longer.” An investigation disclosed that it was actually a Continental wireless station broadcasting a dramatisation of the episode.

Reported SOS Call A San Francisco amateur radio operator reported that he heard an SOS signal mentioning the words: “East Howland. Lights to-night. Must hurry. Can’t hold.” It is now disclosed by Mr. Putnam that his wife did not carry a water condenser. She carried three gallons of water from Lae, New Guinea, and otherwise would depend on rain squalls. The famous polar explorer, RearAdmiral R. E. Byrd, said that there was every good reason to believe that the missing flyers would be found, whether on land or floating, that was if the signals were actually from them. They could survive indefinitely even if the plane had been forced down on the water.

The coastguard is informed by the Colorado and Itasca that the weather for the search to-day is fair, though with some cloudiness.

WATCH BY MARIPOSA FAINT MESSAGE HEARD CONTACT WITH SEARCHERS AUCKLAND, last night. Radio operators on board the liner Mariposa, which arrived at Auckland to-day, kept a constant watch for sigials from Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam's monoplane, but beyond a faint message transmitted in a woman’s voice over the radio telephone, nothing was heard. Captain Meyer, master of the Mariposa, said that the radio room was in close communication with the United States Coast Guard cutter Itasca from the time is set out from Honolulu on Monday in the search for the missing flyers. Always in the hope that the Mariposa could give assistance, strict visual and radio watches were kept.