Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-29
PLANE SQUADRON
LEAVES TO HUNT
MISSING AWATORS
Eight Commercial and Three
Army Craft to Scour
Route to Ithaca.
TRANSOCEAN AIRMAN
PARTICIPATES IN SEARCH
No Trace of Wrecked Aero Found
on Mountainside Near
Harrisburg, Pa.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
CURTISS FIELD, N. Y, August %.
Eight commercial planes from this
field and three Army ships from
Mitchell Field took the air at 7:15 this
morning to search the country between
here and Ithaca, N. Y, for M. M. Mer-
rill and e. NJ. Rome missing since
Monday night on an attempted flight
rom Buffalo.
Planes were the advance guard Of
what is expected to be the greatest con-
centration ever made Of airplanes on
such a mission. Between 30 and 40
ships will have left the field by noon,
If plans carry through.
Led by Casey" Jones, veteran COM
mercial flyer and president of the Cur
tiss Flying Service, the planes took the
air at minute intervals from tbs, the
first ones in the air circling the field
until all were off the ground.
Form Huge Fan.
Joined by the three Army planes
from Mitchell Field the ships then
formed in a huge fan formation and
rapidly disappeared into the north.
They will continue IN that formation
until they reach Ithaca or find the
missing flyers
Each plane carried two observers, one
to watch the terrain on each side
They will cover the route supposed to
have been taken by Merrill and Rome.
Other planes which are being concen-
trated here from Philadelphia, Hadley
Field. N. j., and other points will take
of later in the day to join in the
search. The entire route from here to
Ithaca has been blocked of into squares
with each p' ne assigned definite ter
ritory to cover.
The Sabelli plane, the Roma, being
groomed for a transatlantic flight, also
joined the search, and was assigned
Long Island as its territory. Roger @.
Williams. who will be co-pilot on the
ocean flight, was at the stick Of the big
sesquiplane.
Other lanes being sent out of Buff
falo viii cover the territory between
that city and Ithaca.
Reported At Dusk.
Merrill. manager of Curtiss Field,
and Rome, head Of the Buffalo munic-
ipal airport, took of from Buffalo at
PM, Monday in Col. Lindbergh's Cur
tiss Falcon. Many hours later no word
OF their landing had been received. al
though half an hour after their take
OF a plane passed over Raskinville and
a short time later in the gathering dusk
q plane was seen over Ithaca.
State police headquarters at Harris
burg. Pa. were notified an airplane had
fallen on mountainSide near ClarkS
Ferry last evening. and searching
party was organized Immediately in an
effort to determine whether the plane
was the missing Lindbergh craft.
The flight from Buffalo should have
taken only two and one-half to three
hours. When the airmen did not ap-
pear at CurtiSs Field on schedule little
fear was felt. as both men were ex-
pert pilots and 1t was supposed they
had landed somewhere for the night
All points on the airmen's route
were queried. and Casey" Jones. preSi-
dent of the CurtisS Flying Service, or
dered all his flyers on reserve duty. Fog
prevented their starting search, but
they were held available until today.
Appeals were made To State troopers
of New York and Pennsylvania and
railroads were asked TO spread the word
of the missing plane through their sta
tion agents along the airmen's route.
Other Flyers Search.
Lieut.. Nathaniel L. Duffy took or
from Buffalo and flew to Towanda, Pa.
but saw no sign of the missing plane.
He landed for the night at Elmira to
resume the hunt today Capt. Fred
Becker took Oft from Mitchell Field late
in the day, but returned after an hours
flying because of low visibility.
The plane had been at the Buffalo
airport having burned-out bearing
replaced, and IL was believed quite
probable that 1t might have gone
wrong again on the flight Merrill was
flying 1t to CurtiSS Field for Col. Lind
bergh
Merrill and Rome we're both Army
flyers during the war After Army
service Merrill transformed for sew
eral years through the Southwest He
came to New York several years ago
and for some time has been in charge
of CurtiSS Field. He has q wife and
5-year-old son Rome has been In
charge of the Buffalo airport since II
was built two years ago.