FLYING

Wairarapa Daily Times, 18 January 1933, Page 5

FLYING

THE MISSING HINKLER SEARCH IN THE ALPS. Press Association Electric Telegraph Copyright RUGBY, Monday. Captain Lawrence Hope, one of the leading British pilots, flew yesterday To Basle, 'Switzerland, whence he will make flights over tho Alps in search of his friend, Squadron-Leader Hinkler, who has been missing since 7th January, when lie left Feltham, England, in an effort to create a new record for the flight to Australia. -Snowstorms, clouds, and bad visibility prevented Captain Hope from thoroughly scrutinising tho Alps, states a. Press Association cablegram from Basle. The airman made two flights over the sector Mr Hinkler probably traversed.

Other reports have now been received of an aeroplane above Morgins on the morning of 7tli January. Captain Hope ascertained that apoliceman at Montana-Vermala saw a machine heading' for the. Simplon half an hour after the time given in the report cabled yesterday. There were no Swiss or French machines in the locality that day. Mr Hinkler should have been there at 8 a.m., but if the machine seen at 11 a.m. was his,- it shows that he had been trying for some time to get through the cloud barrier which was thick over the Jura that day. Lack of news on the Italian side suggests that the airman did not get across. It is significant that Captain Hope in the forenoon feared to have to make a forced landing from a height of 7000 feet, but surmounted the trouble, though there was ice on his carburettor when he landed. He will search Montana-Vermala tomorrow.

(SEARCH INTERFERED WITH. BY SNOW AND SLEET, (Received Wednesday, 10.25 a.m.) BASLE, Tuesday. Snow and sleet prevented Captain Hope searching for Hinkler, so he has transferred Tiis headqaurters to Lausanne, which is handier than Siinplon. Those familiar with the Alps are apprehensive that snow would obliterate all traces of the aeroplane. There is a new report that a machine was seen on 7th January over Lake Geneva, and also another going from the Rhone Valley towards the Simplon Pass, which is an unusual route. y NOT SEEN OVER FRANCE. (Received Wednesday, 10.25 a.m.) PARIS, Tuesday. French authorities exhaustively enquired for Hinkler at the request of the British Air Ministry, and report that there is no evidence of an unknown airman crossing France. The aerial control is so close that it is impossible for a ’plane to cross France unseen. It was unlikely that Hinkler had gone so far out of liis course as the Alps, especially in winter time.

It is feared that Hinkler met with disaster in the Channel.

A CONTEMPTIBLE BURGLARY. (Received Wednesday, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, Tuesday. Burglars ransacked every room in Hinkler’s Southampton home. The postman calling with letters saw the dining room window smashed, and the police found the house in wild disorder. It is impossible yet to say what has been stolen but Hinkler kept many valuable gifts and trophies there.

GIRL FLYERS MISSING.

RUGBY, Monday,

Aeroplanes left Nairobi to-day to search for two young English airwomen, Misses , Joan Pago and Audrej' Sale Barker, who were missing after leaving Moshi for Nairobi on Saturday. The airwomen, who had flown from the Cape, were returning home by easy stages. The hop from Moshi to Nairobi is 180 miles over rough bush thickly inhabitated by big game. They set off in stormy weather, folio-wing the mail aeroplane, but (when owing to the weather, the latter turned back, the girls flew on. This afternoon one of the searching pilots reported seeing about 40 miles from Nairobi a wrecked machine with one girl standing by waving. Being unable to land, he returned to Nairobi, and is leaving with other machines and with a doctor, food, and firstaid equipment.

Miss Page, who is an experienced pilot, is the daughter of Sir Arthur Page, the Chief Justice of Burma. Miss Sale Barker is a noted skier. LADY BAILEY MISSING. (Received Wednesday, 9.40 a.m.) ORAN, Tuesday. Nothing has been ~ heard of Lady Bailey since she left Oran. It is feared that ihfluenza may have led to an accident.

SOUTHERN CROSS. TO FLY BACK ACROSS TASMAN. NEW PLYMOUTH, Tuesday. The (Southern Cross will be flown across the Tasman Sea back to Australia at the end of the New Zealand tour, said Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, before his departure for Rotorua this afternoon. He said he expected to take off from the Ninety Mile Beach. He estimated the cost of flying the Tasman at about £75. Fourteen persons -were aboard the big monoplane when it left for Rotorua. At New Plymouth, Sir C. Kingsford Smith had remarkable success in commercial flying, Sunday establishing a record for Australia or New Zealand. In the event of the establishment of a trans-Tasman service by some multiengined machine, Kingsford Smith estimated the probable fare at £lB to £2O.—(P.A.)