FLIER’S TERRIBLE ORDEAL

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1928, Page 9

FLIER’S TERRIBLE ORDEAL

TRIALS TN HOSTILE LANDS PHONE DAMAGED IN STORM EXPERIENCES OF AUTOCRAT By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Received Jan. 1, 5.5 p.m. A. and N.Z. Beirut, Dec. 31. Colonel Antoinat, who. is flying from Paris to Tonquin, gives thrilling details of his experiences. “Directly I left Rome,” he said, “we were blown far out of our course over the Mediterranean. The cold was so terrible that one pilot fainted and another replaced him. For hours we battled with the storm and fog trying to reach Athene. The petrol tanks were almost dry when we were able to land in Adalia, where (he Turks arrested us on a charge that we had flown over Smyrna without permission of the Turkish authorities. We started again in the teeth of a r.iglnp storm, and were tossed to and fro a, the plane lurched about one of the left stays snapped and the machine tilted sidewards and plunged towards the waves. When a few feet above the water the plane straightened and we were just able to land on the shore near Mersina. »

‘‘Here a large mob of armed peasants cursed and beat us, and refused us food and water. Ultimately the French Consul came io the rescue, and not a moment too soon, as the peasant were just starting to burn our plane.

“'■Tihe crew restarted on Christmas morning and, despite the exhaustion from which they were suffering, we reached Alexandria, but it is little enort of a miracle that the aeroplane survived the buffeting of the storms.”