CRASH IN JUNGLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 244, 16 October 1939, Page 5

CRASH IN JUNGLE

NEW GUINEA AIRCRAFT wreckage seen from air HIGH ON BLACK CAT RANGES SYDNEY, Sept. 26. The finding last Sunday morning during a mail flight from Salamaua to Sydney of the wreckage of a Boeing aeroplane, in which Pilot Hugh Bond had crashed four days previously in jungle 6000 ft. high in the Black Cat Ranges, New Guinea, was described by Captain R. O. Mant after he brought the W. R. Carpenteb air liner from Rabaul to Kingsford Smith airport. Captain Mant, who is flight superintendent of Carpenter Airlines, said that he had sighted the wreckage of a wing in the dense jungle near the Black Cat gold mine. He had agreed to search this section of the country after consultation with the leader of the search party in Salamaua on Saturday. Wing in Tree-top* ■On my way into Salamaua on Thursday I passed the Boeing in flight through heavy thunderstorms,” said Captain Mant. “On Friday I flew to Rabaul, and returned to Salamaua on Saturday, when for the first time, I heard that the aircraft was missing. After a talk 1 found that nobody had searched the Papuan beaches or the country near them, so I agreed to look there. There was a possibility, too, that Bond had made a landing at an old aerodrome at Bulldog. I asked my male passengers to keep a sharp look-out on Sunday morning. “The search took us well west of our usual course, and early on Sunday morning I saw a broken vj.ng in the tree-tops about 2000 ft. below the 8000 ft. peaks of the ranges near the Black Cat mine. Just as I sighted it one of the passengers the cockpit door to tell me that he had also seen it. Rescue Party Directed ■ I communicated with the wireless operator at Salamaua, but as he had never flown over the country it was difficult to explain the exact position of the wreck. We decided to fly back to Salamaua to make sure the rescue party went in the right direction. A party was sent from Wau on Sunday, and after a difficult journey Bond was brought in on Monday.” When the rescue party reached the scene of the crash they found that Bond had crawled two miles from his aeroplane to the Black Cat mining camp. He reached the camp almost exhausted and suffering from bad cuts on the legs and slight burns on the face. The Boeing. a single-engined machine, was one of two recently acquired in New Zealand.