| Summary: | Post Crashes In Alaska; Exhausted, But Not Hurt: May Continue East Today If Ship Is Repaired./Long Sea Flight./Made 2700 Miles From Siberia -- Lost Seven Hours In Sky./ Weather Was Nasty./ Plane Lands In Wind 300 Miles Southeast Of Nome -- Tips Over. POST CRASHES IN ALASKA; May Continue East; Today if Ship Is Repaired. LONG SEA FLIGHT. Made 2700 Miles From Siberia -Lost Seven Hours in Sky. WEATHER WAS NASTY Plane Lands in Wind 300 Miles Southeast of Nome-Tips Over. By Associated Press. FLAT, Alaska, July 20.-Wiley Post, globe-girdling flyer, crashed today on the Flat airport field at 3:30 p.m., Fairbanks time (5:30 p. m., P. S. T., 8:30 E. S. T.). He was unhurt, but was exhausted and extremely nervous, and he had been "lost" for seven hours over Alaska, he said. Triple Bounce Disastrous. After circling the field several times, Post put his fast plane, the Winnie Mae, down in an east wind, which bounced the ship three times before it nosed over. The propeller was bent and the landing gear damaged. Within a short time, communication was established with Fairbanks and arrangements made for a plane to rush repair parts here, and it was believed that the Winnie Mae might be ready for the air again tomorrow morning. Was Flying High. Post's plane first appeared over Flat from the northeast, passing at an elevation of about 4000 feet. He headed south toward a range of hills four miles away, and then returned to hunt for a landing field. He said he had been following the Iditarod river for seven hours, not knowing where he was. Apparently he circled Ruby for some time, but had been unable to find the landing field. After being aided out of his plane, he was taken t0 tne near-by hangar and was examined for injuries, but none were found. Mechanics began immediately to inspect the damaged Winnie Mae. A great deal of bad weather was encountered over Bering sea, Post said, and he signed some mountains through the clouds near Nome for his first view of the American continent. In Air 22 Hours. When Post bounced to a stop on the edge of the flying field here he had been in the air 22 hours, 32 minutes on the 3000-mile flight from Khabarovsk, Siberia. His destination was Fairbanks, but clouds and rain prevailed over all of interior Alaska and, although Post was sighted within 125 miles of his goal, at Tanana, he lost his way and came down 375 miles southwest of Fairbanks. His final iandlng point was about 300 miles southeast of Nome, in the Yukon valley of western Alaska. Flat is a small settlement on the Iditarod river, 150 miles south of Nulato. Conquers the Storms, NOME, Alaska, July 20. OP)—Conquering fog and rain, Wiley Post, Oklahoman, globe-girdler, flashed over Nome at 7:30 a. m. (Nome time) today and headed his fast plane, the Winnie Mae, toward Fairbanks, 500 miles inland. Crossing Bering sea, Post was believed to have the most difficult leg of his aerial journey around the world behind him. He took off from Khabarovsk, eastern Siberia, 30 hours and 16 minutes ahead of the record he and Harold Gatty set in 1931 when they flew from New York to New York in eight days, 15 hours and 51minutes. At Fairbanks, Post would have but 650 miles of his 15,400 route left. From Fairbanks he planned to fly 1450 miles to Edmonton and then have a 2200-mile jump to New York. As soon as the United States army signal corps learned of Post's take-off from Khabarovsk, a steady stream of dfrectional signals were poured into the ether from wireless stations in westward Alaska.
|
|---|