Novel End To Atlantic Flight

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 86, 2 July 1927, Page 1

Novel End To Atlantic Flight

Byrd Paddies Ashore In Rubber Canoe

Airmen Safe After Alighting on Sea TOWARD the close of a successful flight across the Atlantic, Commander Byrd and his companions in the airplane America were lost temporarily in mist over Paris and were compelled to go back to sea. A landing was attempted on the beach near Ver-sur-Mer, but the wheels of the plane collapsed, and they skimmed off the shore. After anchoring the craft in shallow water the airmen paddled ashore in a rubber canoe.

By Cable.—Press Association. —Copyright Reed. 9.5 a.m. LONDON, Friday.

Immediately on learning that Byrd and his companions had come ashore on the French coast six airplanes were

chartered by pressmen and photographers, who left Le Bourget for sur-Mer, a village on the French coast. An unofficial report from Cherbourg states that the airplane is still in the sea, but undamaged, and will be towed ashore at low tide. The airmen are well.

A later message reports that Ver-sur-Mer fishermen, heading shoreward, found the abandoned plane, and then discovered Byrd and Woville asleep on the beach. Most conflicting messages are pouring in regarding how the airmen reached the shore. They are now sleeping at a lighthouse, where orders were given that they were not to be disturbed. The plane is anchored close inshore, awaiting salvage at the fall of the tide. So far the extent of damage, if any, has not been ascertained. It is hoped that Byrd personally will superintend the salvage of his craft before the party motors to Paris, after the reception at Caen (the capital of the Department of Calvados, in Normandy, 125 miles north-west of Paris.)