Douglas Daily Dispatch

Trans-Atlantic Fliers Saved After Floating in Wrecked Plane on Ocean for 148 Hours.

Use Up Fuel Going in Circle When Compass Thrown Off by Island

HALIFAX, N. S., Sept. 21 (P). Picked up after floating 148 hours on the wave-buffeted wreckage of their Lisbon-to-New York plane, three foreign fliers were safe today aboard the small Norwegian motor-ship Belmoira.

The rescue of the daring pair of German airmen and a Portuguese sportsman who had been given up for dead was reported to the outside world by wireless just one week after they were due in New York.

First came a terse message from the Belmoira saying the wreckage of a plane had been sighted about eight miles off Cape Pine, a treacherous section of the Newfoundland coast.

Hours after reporting the rescue, the Belmoira gave a few scant details.

One of Trio Injured

The fliers all were in good health, the motorship wirelessed, but Da Costa Viega was suffering from an injured leg.

The airmen were picked up not 50 miles from the position in which they were sighted at 1:40 p. m. (E. S. T.) last Monday by the steamer Pennland, about 80 miles off Cape Race, Newfoundland.

From this meagre information, it was believed here the trio had struck aviation's "blind spot" where the metallic deposits of Bell Island are believed to influence the instruments of trans-Atlantic airmen.

This, it was said, probably caused them to fly in circles until their fuel was exhausted.

It was almost in this exact spot that Kingsford Smith, flying the Atlantic in June last year, lost his bearings and consumed much of his fuel in a long ellipse before coming down safely at Harbor Grace.

Afloat 148 Hours

One reason for this view was the fact that Rody and Johannsen, in their brief messages to relatives in Germany, reported they had kept the wrecked plane afloat approximately 148 hours.

This was between 10 and 15 hours less than the total time that had elapsed from the time the plane was sighted by the Pennland and the time the fliers were picked up by the Belmoira.

Their plane "The Sea," was believed to have had about 12 hours fuel left when sighted by the Pennland. Airports here kept their floodlights burning throughout last Monday night on the basis of that calculation.

The trio set out Sept. 13 from Juncal Do Sol, about 30 miles from Lisbon, Portugal, with New York as their destination. They were sighted twice, once at the Azores and later, last Monday afternoon, by the steamer Pennland 80 miles off Cape Race, New Foundland.