Evening star., 1938-01-12
NAWPLANEFA|LS
TO FIND TRACE Of
MISSING CLIPPER
Reports Of Sighting Near
British Samoa Are
Discounted.
FURTHER HUNT PLANNED
WITH SURFACE VESSEL
Pan.American Headquarters Scout
Fears Plane Had Burned.
Apprehension Grows.
BULLETIN
B BULLETIN

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan.
II R.-The Navy today
notified Pan-American Air
ways, which is seeking it's
missing Samoan clipper,
that an oil slick was dis
covered IL miles west of
Pago Pago and that a Navy
launch was recovering
parts of wreckage. "Identi-
fication satisfactory" said
the unsigned message to
the Navy.
By the Associated Press.
PAGO PAGO. Tutuila American
Samoa. Jan. PA Navy plane, after
two flights in futile efforts to locate
the missing Samoan Clipper and its
crew OF seven. charted a further search
today with the aid of a surface vessel
Reports that the clipper was sighted
afloat "a miles due west of Apia,
British Samoa. were received from
Dunedin. New Zealand. but the con-
census here was that disaster. possibly
from midair explosion. might have
overtaken the craft.
HhSnr1aVc hara loo
Dunedin reports may have followed
misconstruction of first unconfirmed
reports the Clipper was down at Apia.
Pan-American headquarters in
San Francisco, discounting the be-
lief the plane ha'l burned, said a
Navy plane would take off again
at dawn in attempts to find the
Clipper. Samoan time is four hours
behind Pacific Standard time The
International Date Line is beyond
Pago Pago)
Two extended flights around the
Islands were made late yesterday and
the naval plane returned to Pago Pago
at nightfall
Fear grew here that the 2l-ton
flying boats gasoline caught fire
as it was being dumped into the Pa
cific Ocean and exploded. killing its
ace commander, Capt Edwin Musick,
and the six other crewmen. The clip
per carried no passengers.
The plane, only an estimated three
out of Pago Pago. was Dump
ing its gasoline preparatory to landing
when last heard from at 1927 am. yes
terday 1927 pm, E. S. T).
Oil slick was reported found on the
water IL miles off Tutuila Island. In
the same vicinity column of smoke
vas reported sighted yesterday.
Last Flight With Clipper.
No further word came from the ship
after preparations to land were re-
ported by Capt. Musick, 43-year-old
veteran transoceanic aviator. He was
On his Hast fight with the clipper in
Pam American Always new Honolulu
to-New Zealand service.
The naval aircraft tender Avocet put
but from Pago Pago to maintain a
search for flares. After
daylight it investigated the reported
oil slick in an effort to determine
it might mark the Samoan
Clippers burial ground.
At that spot it scheduled rendez-
rous with a naval plane piloted by
1t. T. B. Williamson, who made
fruitless 5-hour aerial search yester-
lay. His take-off was set for dawn
(12:30 PM, E. S. TD
English officials were reported to
have sent out ship to scour the
many islands in nearby British Samoa.
Natives throughout all the Samoan
Islands were asked to post lookouts on
mountain peaks. Absence of ships
In this area of the South Pacific
the search. Requests were
expected to be sent to steamships
coming near the islands to Join the
search and possibly plea be sent to
Honolulu for the aid of destroyers,
Absence of word by radio was re-
earded as foreboding. The Clipper
was equipped with kites from which
an aerial could be flown to permit her
radio to send If she landed on water
and transmission was blocked by
island mountain peaks.
The disappearance was the first mis-
hap o: any Of the Pan-American clip
pers which have been flying the Pacific.
&C.. ~ TNnrr ----A----