Aeroplane Mishaps

This biplane of the Stevens Company, when it arrived over Salamaua, New Guinea, on the morning of July 28, found the aerodrome and coast blotted out under thick rain-clouds. It flew around for three hours; and then, fuel exhausted, the pilot came down safely in the water at a point near Chinatown.

The photograph, taken from the main land, shows the machine in the water, and the town and isthmus of Salamaua, on the other side of the harbour.

A Lucky Escape

On August 3, when a Gipsy Moth plane was leaving the Wau aerodrome, with W. Hargraves as pilot and Mechanic D. Muir in the front cockpit, something went wrong with the control, and the machine left the fairway and headed straight for Guinea Airways building. The pilot tried to get through between buildings, but a wing struck a bungalow, and the machine swung across the roadway and crashed straight into the Customs-house. Muir, with great presence of mind, leaped out and saved himself. The pilot was bruised and badly shaken.