FLIGHT OVER JUNGLE.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17994, 12 April 1930, Page 9

FLIGHT OVER JUNGLE.

TO SAVE WOMAN MISSIONARY. PILOT LANDS IN FOREST. Advice has just been received by the Vacuum Oil Company Pty., Ltd-, of a thrilling flight from Johannesburg to Angola (Portugese West Africa) made by Lieut. J. R. King to; save the life of a woman missionary in Angola. An urgent message had been despatched for an anti-hydro-phobia serum. Lieut. King set out on his 6000 miles journey with the serum carefully placed in his inside pocket. At one stage of his journey, he ran almost out of petrol. Below were thousands of square miles of dense jungle- He came across a little dried patch of river bed, and nosing his machine in, he made a safe landing. So close were the trees on either side, that he could almost lean out of the machine and touch them. The next day, natives arrived on the scene, and with their aid, the machine was dismantled in order to make It portable. After covering 14 miles, they reached a clearing, which Lieut - enaut King considered would permit him to take off when he had some petrol. A porter was sent ,to Lubango and returned with a supply of fuel. When King arrived at Lubango, the Portugese Governor of this territory ordered an army of native convicts to clear and level a length of dried-up river bed, so that King could take off, and with his tanks and cockpit once more full of fuel, he departed on the last lap to Malange. At Malange, the package containing the serum for the dying missionary woman \yas put on a small hand trolley and reached the mission station by terestrial transport over the last few miles of its romantic journey. The finest view of Africa that Lieut. King obtained in that 6000 mile journey was the great estuary of the Congo- At the place where he commenced to cross, the river was so wide that he could not see across it. Studded with great islands, dark equatorial vegetation and steaming with the mists from the swamps on both hanks, it was an unforgettable sight. Lieut. King’s flight must be one of the most remarkable in the history of aviation.