PRACTICALLY ABANDONED

Taranaki Daily News, 18 November 1930, Page 7

PRACTICALLY ABANDONED

ATLANTIC FLIGHT OF DO.X RISK OF OCEAN REFUELLING RECONSIDERATION OF PLANS POLICE GUARDING PLANE By Telegraph—Press A-sn.—Copyright. Rec. 8.30 p.m. London, Nov. 16. Although, the German flying boat Dorner Do.X is likely to continue to the Azores the idea of a trans-Atlantic flight has practically been abandoned, says the Berlin correspondent of the Daily Express. Several incidents during the preliminary stages caused the designer of the plane to reconsider the project at the present period of the year. Conditions are extremely foggy and it is over-risky to attempt to refuel in mid-ocean.

A message from Bordeaux states that French police were called out at the instance of Dr. Dorner to guard the Do.X, which is in danger of interference by souvenir hunters. To-morrow 5G Frenchmen will be invited to make a short flight. The Do.X left Calshot on Friday for Bordeaux on another stage of the Atlantic flight, but alighted in the Bay of Biscay near Sables d’Lonne. It is understood the flying boat did not attempt to reach Bordeaux owing to the heavy fog, but taxied safely for 50 miles to Gironde.

The French naval airship VlO which •set out to seek for the Do.X., which had not answered wireless signals, efrashed near the base at Rochefort. An\ explosion occurred but the crew of eight was caved by the pilot’s presence of mind in shutting off the engines and throwing over as much ballast as possible in order to delay the fall. The airship hit the ground with such force that it became a tangled mass of metal and fabric.