The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-04-14
BY JOHN McHUGH

In the bleak and ice-locked
strait of Belle Isle today three
European aviatOrS awaited the
hour when they could be taken
back to civilization and world
wide acclaim as the first to fly
an airplane westward across the
north Atlantic ocean.
The triumph of the JIn';ers
monoplane Bremen and its Ger
man-Irish crew is one of the
greatest in the history of aviation
and explains in part why seven
other aviatorS lost their lives in
three previous attempts to make a
similar flight.
A supply of gasoline which the
best flyers of two continents had
estimated would keep the plane
aloft forty-five hours lasted only
thirty-four hours and the Bremen
was forced to land at noon yeSter-
day on Greenly Island, between
the mainlands of Labrador and
Newfoundland.
Only meager details Of the land
ing are available here, due to the
uncertainty of communications i'll
this corner of the world. Enough
is known, however, to establish that
the German Irish airmen were
thrown far off their course, that
they flew until their last drop of
gasoline was consumed, and that
they landed under the most per-
ilous of conditions-on an icebound
island no larger than pinpoint on
big wall map.
Still Far From Goal
Today the Bremen, its propeller
and tailskid broken and it's fuel
tanks empty, still is far from the
goal it's crew had set when they
flew out from Dublin at dawn
Thursday.
Mitchell Field of Heaven-that's
our fate" Col. James Fitzmaurice,
the big commandant of the Irish
air force, said at Baldonnel air.
drome. His two German COM
panions, Baron Gunther Won Huen-
field, backer of the flight, and Capt.
Herman Koehl, agreed that the
smiling Irishman had called the
alternative destinations with ac-
Curacy.
Operator Flashes Word
A Marconi operator at Point
Amour, Labrador, about twenty
miles from Greenly Island, sent the
first word of the landing. 1t said
merely that the Bremen had landed,
was damaged slightly, out of petrol,
and that the fliers we're safe.
The keeper of the lgilouse on
Greenly Island was reported to have
given shelter to the aviators, pend
ing their crossing to the Labrador
mainland.
Later in the day they may start
back to Mitchell Field, L. 1.
In this town, 400 miles southeast
Of Greenly Island, Atlantic
flying has been the one big sensa-
ton of the last year. Lindbergh
flew out to sea from here last May.
In more recent months the ma
tives have been looking eastward,
waiting skeptically for a glimpse of
the first plane to fly out of the wide
Atlantic from Europe. Thus far
they never have seen one.
Pushed OFF Course
The Bremen passed over to the
north of st. Johns, probably thrown
off it's course by treacherouS head
wids-the same which aided Lind
bergh when he was going the other
way-or by the rotation of the
earth, which no aviator has been
able to reckon to his advantage.
The inability of previous pilots of
westward transatlantic planes to
cope with unfavorable headwindS
probably explains their failures.
The Bremen completed the 1900
mile overwater flight, but in doing
so it consumed supply of gasoline
which its crew had estimated would
carry it to New York with fuel to
spare. Newfoundland still was
twelve hours from it's goal.
On that basis the other planes,
which were much heavier than the
Bremen, must have exhausted their
gasoline far out in the Atlantic and