TWO MEN WHO CAME BACK

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 673, 27 May 1929, Page 8

TWO MEN WHO CAME BACK

GIVEN up for dead, Moir and Owen have come dramatically back to life. For the third time in a few weeks search parties have had to he marshalled, axxd the remote fringes of Australia patrolled for missing airmen. Like the Kingsford Smith party, Moir and Owen have been discovered safe. Indeed, enjoying the hospitality of a lighthouse staff that evidently works uxxder the handicap of complete lack of contact with the outside world, they must have spent their days in reasonable comfort. Yet the fact that two of the three ventures ended thus in comparative felicity, does not dim the tragedy of the third, in which Anderson and Hitchcock lost their lives. Nor does it obscure another impoi-tant feature, the high cost of stunt flying. Concern for Moir and Owen was deep and sincere, bxxt the news that they were missing was i-eeeived almost with l-esigna-tion. To expect that they might return from the dead seemed too much to hope fox-. Yet it is seen now that they had not been forced down to almost certain death in the lonely Timor Sea, but had won to their goal, the coast of Australia, a goal reached onlyafter discouraging vicissitudes, and in time easily bettered by an ocean liner. The lesson from the dramatic climax to the flight is that hope is never lost until every possible landing-place lias been examined. The long-distance flyer whose luck is in seems to have as many lives as a cat. Another lesson is that the men who undertake these flights should include in their preliminax-y preparations some arrangement for mobilisation of search parties if they fail to appear on time. Under the present system the airmen simply stake everything on what is little better than a gambler’s chance. Theiionly consideration before the flight is to get finance for a machine and petrol. After that —glory and material reward; or failure, and heavy public expenditure so that charitable govex-nments may send out search parties.

Long-distance flying is losing its romance. There are yet great spans of ocean to be bridged, and epic achievements to stir the air-consciousness of the races of the woi'ld. But there is a growing sentiment against purely reckless adventures, and a tendency toward caution in expending thousands of pounds on rescuing flyers whose stunts are simply a commerical proposition. The happy termination of the flight of Moir and Owen is as agreeable as it was—after the lapse of several days—unexpected. But the stout-hearted fellows, ten weeks out from Lympne, have done very; little to illustrate the dependability of the airplane.