The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-08-28
Plane Dove Into
 Sea and Sank
(Continued from Page 1A

possible and the plane struck the surface of the sea with a crash which Jared passengers.
 No sooner was the plane down than a huge swell, kicked up by the storm of the previous day. smashed over 1t. One pontoon was ripped off. The plane listed. Water gushed Into the cabin. Passengers, panicky now, were ordered out on the wings.
 The unwritten law of the sea- women first-was observed. men passengers and crew remaining in the fast-filling cabin until the three women had clambered to precartous perches on the sweep ing wings of the big Sikorsky.
 Banwell. sole victim of the acci- dent, was the first man to leave the cabin. He disappeared during the excitement, presumably having been carried to death by one of the mountainous waves that lashed the crippled airship.
 Pilot Fillmore soon realized that the pounding sea would make short work of the disabled transport. He realized, too, that there was only one slim chance of saving the dyes of those marooned.
 Deep in the water which had filled the cabin was a rubber life raft. and he and his radio operator, Alfred w. Eston of North Abing- tons began diving in an effort to recover it.
 Again and again they plunged from the wings. fighting their way through the cold water to reach the cabin. Finally Elmore secured the raft and a bicycle pump with which he inflated it.
 The plane, shattered by the sav- age surf, seemed in momentary danger of sinking during the pain fully slow process of filling the big raft with air from the little hand pump. But finally the task was completed, the raft was launched and all passengers, without waiting orders. dived into the ocean.
 The women were able to sit on the raft but the men had to cling to its sides as it bobbed about crazily on the storm-roughened sea.
 Just before the plane struck the water, Radio Operator Eston had reeled in the radio antenna and he had not been able to broadcast an o s.
 So the survivors clung to the life raft with the disheartening knowl- edge coast guards ashore and ships at sea were unaware of their plight.
 One of the women, Miss Mabel Y. Ryan, Waltham school teacher, tore off a piece of her white petti- coat and this was hoisted on the end of an oar as @ distress signal.
 It was this white fragment. hut- tertng against the evening sky, which attracted the attention of Captain Lea Fazalio of the two- masted Gloucester fishing schooner Nova Julia nearly two hours later. He was coming in from the banks when he sighted and picked up those adrift.
 Those at the hospital to-day were:
 Miss Lois M. Draper. 4s. Wal than.
 Miss Mabel F. Ryan. 4s. Wal than.
 Bernard M. Fineson. 26, of S01 West 1S1st street, New York, a lawyer.
 His wife Mildred, "A.
 Irwin Bloom, 42, New York.
 Gilbert B. Hodge. 31. of 210 West Madison street. Baltimore.
 Those discharged after treat ment were: William H. Noonan of Halifax, N. s., civil engineer; Irwin S. Dauphinee, 39, Gloucester; H. Wade Randall, 47, Calais, Me; John Navarro of Boston, steward of the plane; Pilot Elmore and Radio Operator Eston.
 Gloucester, Mass, Aug 2S.-UP) Her experiences adrift on rub Der life raft, after the sinking of the transport plane off Marble head, were described at Adison Gill; bert hospital to-day by Miss Lois M. Draper, 46, of Waltham. one of the rescued passengers
 After passing Portsmouth, N. H." she said, "a thick fog settled down quickly, and knew the pilot would have to land. The next thing, we hit the water with a tremendous crash. l was flung forward violently.
 Somebody exclaimed, Come out through this window! and cllmb- ed out. I found myself in water. I can't swim. But I grabbed a strut of the plane and pulled my self up on a wing. Some man helped me.
 "Pretty soon I saw them blow ing up the rubber life raft. The plane was sinking. think every body behaved bravely. If anyone was panicky, he or she didn't show 1t.
 Tt seemed hours and hours we were adrift on the life raft in that terribly cold water, with the waves breaking over our heads. We Tor got what time 1t was, but we didn't lose hope.
 we wondered what would pe- come of us if the raft collapsed.
 "Finally that boat came along and later learned from the cap tain that 1t was by the merest chance that he came by the buoy near which we were riding the swells."