OIL LEAK ON FLIGHT TO AUCKLAND

Southland Times, Issue 23406, 13 January 1938, Page 5

OIL LEAK ON FLIGHT TO AUCKLAND

FLYING-BOAT TURNS BACK SUCCESSFUL SEARCH FROM PAGO PAGO The Pan-American Airways Sikorsky flyingboat, the Samoan Clipper, was forced down early yesterday morning on her flight from Pago Pago to Auckland, through an oil leak developing. A Press Association message from Pago Pago late last night stated that a search aeroplane sent out from Pago Pago found the Samoan Clipper. The crew was reported as all well. A cutter was rushing to their aid. The clipper left Pago Pago early yesterday morning for Auckland on the last hop of the first commercial flight by the company down the Pacific. At 8.37 a.m. Captain Edwin C. Musick, who is in command of the ship, reported that an oil leak had developed and that a return was being made to Pago Pago. That was the last radio contact for several hours.

A native at Tutuila, American Samoa, was reported to have seen the clipper trailing a cloud of smoke, but it was later suggested that the spray of petrol being dumped from the wing tanks preparatory to landing was mistaken for smoke. Another report from San Francisco that the ship had been sighted 18 minutes after the last message 74 miles due west of Apia, Western Samoa, was neither confirmed nor denied.