AIRMEN’S PLIGHT DECLARED PRECARIOUS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18730, 9 April 1929, Page 10

AIRMEN’S PLIGHT DECLARED PRECARIOUS.

CARRIED SUFFICIENT FOOD FOR FEW DAYS. (Speeial to the “Star.”) AUCKLAND, April 9. Sydney exchanges to hand throw some light on the flight of the Southern Cross and its possible fate. Some doubt had been expressed about the food supply that the airmen carried with them, but Mr Grey, managing director of the Atlantic Union Oil Company, stated that they had sufficient to last for several days. A note of pessimism was struck by Dr J. A. Gilruth, former Administrator of the Northern Territory, who said that there would be little chance of a safe landing for the Southern Cross on any part of the North Australian coast and its 200 miles of hinterland, except near a township. Tropical weather was an important factor in the success or failure of a North Australian flight, said Dr Gilruth. but there were others no less important. Dr Gilruth added that the main hope was that the Aviation Department might be able to scour the whole of the triangle bounded on the north-west by the coastline and on the south-east b'- a line drawn between Derby and Wyndham, but it should be done with all speed. While an aborigine could exist there, a European, without the help of the blacks, would starve. Therefore, if still alive, the airmen's plight was precarious.—