LOST AIR LINER

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1934, Page 9

LOST AIR LINER

DISAPPEARANCE OF MISS HOBART. INQUIRY AT LAUNCESTON. The Air Accidents Investigation Committee opened its inquiry in. Launceston on October 31 into the loss of the air liner Miss Hobart, which disappeared while crossing Bass Strait on October 19 with' 10 passengers and two pilots. Captain K. M. Frewin, chief pilot for Holyman Airways Proprietary, Limited, denied that it had been kept secret that the pilots changed over in the air, and said that there was no risk in so doing. He said he had flown the Miss Hobart as low as 50ft above the ocean, but pilots had never changed when flying low. Captain Frewin denied that he had made a statement, attributed to him in the Press, that be believed a likely cause of the accident was a mishap when the pilots were changing over. He believed that was an unlikely cause. The Miss Hobart, he said, was not in constant communication by wireless with the land on the normal wavelength. Captain Frewin said that in the new air liners ordered by the company there would be a system of dual control and provision for carrying petrol sufficient for five and a half hours’ flying. Major Murray Jones, manager in Australia for the De Havilland Company, who is appearing to watch his company’s interests, explained that Imperial Airways officers thought that dual control was unnecessary, and none of its machines was so. fitted.

After sitting for' two days, the inquiry was adjourned.