Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-05
Situation Is Complicated by
Alleged Denials of Rail
Agents That They Gave Out
News of Crash.
EIGHT REPORTED KILLED
WHEN BOLT STRUCK SHIP
Company's Statement Stands Until
Facts Are Learned, but Official
Is Beginning to Doubt Authen.
ticity of Reports-14 Planes
Begin Hunt.
nr the Associated Press.

Begin Hunt.
BY the Associated Press.
LOS ANGELES, Calf, Sep
tember S LP.-Earl Gordon and
Lindsay Gillis, Los Angeles fly
ers, en- route here from Albu-
uuerque, N. Mex, telegraphed
friends today that they were
safe at Kingman, Ariz., and
were leaving shortly for this
city. Their plane was believed
previously to have been forced
down in the region where a
search is being made for the
missing transcontinental air
transport liner City Of San
Francisco.
LOS ANGELES, September S.
Confusion and mystery drew a
double veil today around the facts
concerning the Transcontinental
Airport's lost air liner, City of San
Francisco, which previously had
been reported by company off,
cia1s to have been wrecked in the
wilds of the New Mexico Arizona
border region, and it's five pas
sengers and three crew members
dead.
The inability CT searchers to
locate the plake, which disap-
peared Tuesday while on its way
from Albuquerque to Los Angeles,
together with alleged denials of
Santa Fe Railroad agents that
they had circulated reports of the
wreck being found, further COM
plicated the situation this morn
ing.
The chief dispatcher of the
Santa Fe Railroad here declared,
however, that the Santa Fe tele-
graph operator at Perea, had not
denied having reported reports Of
the supposed finding Of the City
of San Francisco in the Black
Rock wash country.
No Change in Announcement.
Informed of these details, H. w. Beck,
Western traffic manager for the Trans |
port, told the Associated Press that the |
official statements of his company say |
ing the liner had been wrecked and its |
passengers and crew killed had been !
based upon information from the /
Santa Fe.
In the face of the conflicting state |
ments from the various Santa Fe agents !
and another from the postmaster at
Gallup. who denied that any of his
mail carriers had reported sighting the
wreck, Beck announced that he would
make mo change for the present in our
previous official statement quoting this
(the Santa Fe) report until further in
vestigation establishes whether there is
any basis for it,"
Authenticity Doubted.
Beck declared, however, that I'VE are !
beginning to doubt the authenticity of |
the report given u.s." He reiterated that |
company officials here had no definite |
information from its own search for the |
facts.
The perea operator communicated !
today with Supt. Collins of the Trans
continental Air Transport in Gallup,
N. Mex, the Winslow dispatcher said.
and reiterated that he yesterday had
passed along report, for delivery TO
T. A. T. officials, that the plane had
been SEEM. The dispatcher quoted the
Perea man as having told Collins that
the report first was received by his
wife from driver of school bus in
the Zuni Indian Reservation. The
woman, who was in Gallup, N. Mex,
transmitted thesinformation to her hus-
band, the dispatcher said.
T. A.. T. ofhces here also announced
that information had come to them
from Gallup that the Perea operator
had reiterated his story.
A telephone call from a banker in
Gallup to the T. A. T. in Winslow
brought information that an Indian
runner had reported at Gallup th)s
morning that he had seen plane go
down in Carbon Wash, which the bank
er said was south of Gallup. Whether
this was a repetition Of an Indian run
ner report received from the zuni res
srvation last night and believed to in
~nlve a plane flown by Early Gordon,
with Lindsay Gillis of Los Angeles as
passenger, the banker did not know.
Virtually all T. A. T. ofhcials who
previously had been directing the search
from Winslow preceded to Gallup.
II Planes Begin Search.
Perea consists chiefly of railroad
station and two or three houses. 1t had
no telephone connections and no means
OF communication except Santa Fe lines,
on the basis OF the newly reiterated
report, two T. A. T. planes, two Army
planes and ten commercial ships left
Winslow this morning to dy over the
terrain In which 1t was believed the
hig Y,1ane might be hidden.
The r. A. T. tri-motored transports
were to fiy on the north side OF the
santa .Fe Railroad as far as old Fort
Defiance, the most Northwesterly point
in which a plane resembling the City
of san Francisco was reported seen IN
the air Tuesday, the day the ship drop
ped from sight.
The Army ships, piloted by Lieut..
Kenneth Barnes and Lieut.. John Bodle.
were searching south of Gallup and
westward toward Houck, Ariz.. while
the smaller. commercial planes were
eriss-crossing the Painted Desert. east
Of Winslow. Natural coloring Of the
CONTINUED on Page .. Column 81