MYSTERY PLANE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 25, Issue 3757, 18 May 1936, Page 3

MYSTERY PLANE

SMUGGLING SUSPECTED. EXCISE OFFICERS ALERT. London, April 16. Customs officers are patrolling a lonely stretch of coast between Folkestone and Dover, watching for a mystery plane, says the correspondent of the Daily Herald. Twice within the past month on successive Thursday nights, as dusk was falling, the machine, believed to be of foreign origin, his circled over the cliffs and landed in a meadow at Capel, near here. Efforts to trace the registration number or pilot have failed. On the second occasion a car met the mystery plane and packages were transferred from the machine to the car. Since that time the plane has not been seen again. The landing-place is within half a mile of the Channel. Customs’ Theory. Several months ago reports were received that a plane was making unauthorised landings in the same area, but a watch on that occasion yielded no clue to the pilot’s identity. Customs authorities are investigating a theory that the plane is connected with the international organisation which controls smuggling by air. A secret conference was held recently in Paris—attended by delegates from all important countries—to find ways of suppressing the illicit traffic. It is alleged that planes are being used to convey drugs between France, Belgium, Germany and Britain. At the head of the smugglers there is believed to be a big organisation in Paris. Customs authorities have been trying for months to trace its agents.