COMPASS OF ILL FATED KOCKABURRA

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 3, 3 May 1929, Page 5

COMPASS OF ILL FATED KOCKABURRA

FITTED DAY BEFORE FLIGHT

NOT USED OR TESTED FOR MONTHS. PLANE TAKEN OFF COURSE. (Received 9.30 a.m.) SYDNEY. This Day. It has now heen disclosed that the compassi with which and Hitchcock were taken so far out of their course on the ilifated KcofcaThe Police. Department figures for only the day before it. left Richmond. The compass was that used by Captain Lancaster in his bight from England in the Red Rose with Mrs Keith Millar, and it had not been used nor tested since..

AVIATORS' TOOLS STOLEN.

TROUBLE IN REPAIRING ENGINE. {Received 8.55 a.m.) ADELAIDE, This Day. Martin Krommer, a gold prospector, now visiting Adelaide, tells of a romantic? meeting with Anderson and Hitchcock thirty-four miles south of Oodnadatta on April 9th. Krommer was sitting on the roadside when the Kookaburra alighted nearby. He hurried to the plane and saw the aviators examining the engine. (Anderson af(ked> Hitchcock for a hox of tools and Hitchcock replied: "Somebody stole them while I was in hospital." Hitchcock had had a had illness some time before the flight. Anderson retorted: "Why didn't you tell me at Broken Hill?"

They worked on the engine usm;r a screwdriver as a chisel and the end of a corkscrew: as a i hammer. They had difficulty getting into the air until Krommer held one wing and Hitchcock the. other. BoUi then thanked Krommer, shook hands and flew away. Krommer said it seemed that the aviators were Y.er? short of tools due to a theft by somebody.—Australian 'P.A. ,

BODIES TO BE BROUGHT BACK MEMORIAL WIIL BE ERECTED. "s7dNEY, May 2. The Prime Minister (Mr. S. M. Bruce) has announced that the Government intends to adhere to its original intention of bringing back to civilisation. An overland party, is being sent from Darwin witlf two caskets borne by camels to tihe scene of the fatality.

The bodies of the airmen will be exhumed and* taken to "Wave Hill where they will be given suitable burial and headstones will also bo erected.

It is further intended to erect a memorial at Alice Springs aerodrome whence the gallant fellows took off rn the final stage of ' their ill-fated flight. \ Four Air Force planes are remaining at their bases with the object of co-operating with the (oiverlaind party. The Chief of the Air Force said the tragic aspect of the matter was that after Anderson and Hitchcock had repaired their engine tiliey apparently were overtaken by thirst j - 'fore they could get the plane again into the air. The Government had already spent £20,000 on search operations, i