LAST VIEW OF 'PLANE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18614, 9 July 1930, Page 9

LAST VIEW OF 'PLANE.

Airmen Still Missing. GRAVE FEARS FOR SAFETY. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright RANGOON, July 7. The latest message about Hook and Matthews states that the airplane was seen on the morning of July 3 over a village about 10 miles north of Taungup, flying low and apparently In difficulties. The chances of the airmen being alive are remote if the airplane crashed in this locality, as it is impenetrable jungle. PROGRESS OF FLIGHT. MOST DANGEROUS STAGE REACHED. James Matthews, formerly Bert Hinkler’s mechanic, and a wealthy young man named Eric Hook, left Lympne secretly at dawn on June 21 in an attempt to break Hinkler’s record flight to Australia. They only arrived at Lympne on the previous night and arranged to leave at dawn in their Moth aeroplane named Dryasel. The heavy petrol load made taking off difficult. Both men hold pilot’s certificates, but their actual flying experience is not extensive. The machine is not fitted with wireless.

Apparently they did not realise the necessity for reporting their identity at foreign aerodromes and there was little news of their movements over Europe. Their route appears to have been as follows:

June 20: Lympne to Lyons. June 21: To Marseilles and Pisa. June 22: To Catania. June 23: To Heliopolis. June 24: To Gaza. June 25: To Gaghdad. June 26: To Jask. June 27: To Karachi (equalling Hinkler’s time). June 28: To Allahabad. June 29: To Calcutta, returned for repairs. June 30: To Calcutta. July 2: To Akyab.

July 3: To Rangoon. On this stage of the journey the airmen went missing. The Government at Rangoon received a message that they had crashed twelve miles from j Taungup, half way between Akyab and Rangoon. No details were available, but the Government at once instructed the local administrative officers to conduct a search. The weather was reported to be very rough in that district, where heavy and continuous rain was falling, owing to the monsoon. Recent storms and earthquakes had in- j terrupted communications between i Akyab and Rangoon, but fortunately these had been restored just before the crash occurred, with the result that immediate efforts to rescue the aviators were possible. Details of the flight have been very meagre and the nature of the engine trouble experienced betwen Allahabad and Calcutta has not been explained. Apparently the flight from Jask to Karachi was difficult owing to the storms off the desert. The easterly monsoon is in progress at this time of year, and, blowing right in the faces of the aviators, would make the journey in the vicinity of Persia and India very arduous.