Aeroplane Lost

Accident- on New Guinea Goldfield

LATE on Thursday afternoon, Septem ber 21. Pilot Bond, left Salamaua aerodrome for Wau, New Guinea, in a Boeing monoplane, which was recently taken to New Guinea by the Glasson- Parer syndicate for freighting purposes.

The weather was thick, and there were heavy thunderstorms, and Mr. Bond, who had not had a great deal of flying ex perience in New Guinea, apparently lost his way and crashed in the jungle at a height of 6,000 ft., in the Black Cat Ranges, to the southward of the route customarily flown between Salamaua and Wau.

Searches were instituted immediately, and went on during the ensuing Friday and Saturday, but without finding any trace of the missing machine.

On Saturday evening Captain Mant, bringing the W.R.C. airliner from Rabaul to Sydney, landed at Salamaua, and learned that the Boeing was missing. He remembered that on his way north to Rabaul on Thursday afternoon at about 4.50 p.m. he had passed the Boeing in flight in heavy thunderstorms near the Black Cat Ranges. Consequently, when he left Salamaua with the airmail early on Sunday morning, he flew somewhat off his usual route in order to search the jungle for the Boeing near the place where he saw it last. He saw a broken wing in the tree-tops and thereupon flew back to Salamaua to give exact informa tion, which would lead a rescue party in the right direction.

The search party from Wau was guided to the wrecked plane by aero planes. The wreck of the Boeing had been destroyed by fire. They found Mr. Bond 200 yards away, burned and injured and semi-conscious—he had been there for three days.

Mr. Bond said that he had been trapped in dense clouds, causing him to fly blindly until he struck the ranges. He was thrown out of the machine, which caught fire on impact with the trees, but

he was unable to avoid bums by flames which were fed from the machine’s cargo of benzine.

Flying conditions have been hazardous lately between Salamaua and Wau as dense storm clouds, rising to 15,000 feet, quickly form over the mountains. These ranges, southward of the Black Cat mines, have caused most of the air accidents in this region.

Near where Mr. Bond was found, Colin Ferguson lost his life a few years ago in similar conditions; Joss Crisp pancaked his machine on the treetops; and the re mains of a Handley Page machine, which crashed on a hillside eight years ago, are lying in the vicinity.

Mr. Peter Seaforth. of Wau, who has a mining “show” on the Bulolo River, reached Sydney from New Guinea by the October “Neptuna”.