Carpenter Airliner

Crashes

Pilots Crisp and Bernard Killed in Nth. Queensland

CARPENTER Airlines’ Lockheed plane, “Carmenia”, crashed into a dense mangrove swamp near Cairns aero drome (North Queensland) shortly after taking off for Papua early on Saturday morning, February 14. The machine was wrecked, and the pilot, Captain E. D.

Crisp, and co-pilot, Captain C. Bernard, were killed.

Both men, skilful and first-class air men, were very well known in Papua and New Guinea. In recent weeks they had done particularly fine work assisting in the evacuation of Territories residents to Australia.

Captain Bernard was the pilot who escaoed last month from Wau, in a WRC Lockheed, when Japanese raiders bombed the Wau area. They chased him as he got into the air and raced across the ranges to Port Moresby, in Papua; but he outwitted them. (See story on page 17.) For some years, Pilot Crisp had been flying on Carpenter Airlines’ Sydney- New Guinea run; previously he was chief pilot for Mandated Airlines.

Howland and Baker Is. Shelled WHEN a US destroyer called in mid- February at the American outposts of Howland Island and Baker Island (2,000 miles south-west of Hawaii) six starving and almost naked men were rescued. They were the only survivors after the islands were shelled recently by Japanese warships.

These two islands, lying just north of the Phoenix Group (British), were occu pied and colonised by Americans and Hawaiian natives in May. 1935, after having been neglected by Britain for over 50 years. There was a good land ing ground for planes on Howland.