The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-04-29

tIlC fAICIkC CAAC1C, dAAA Woo oeAC0AnAS down the home stretch ahead of 8 tail wind at a 200-mile an hour clip when 1t was forced down. It was only 700 miles short of New York and only 225 miles from the coast of Maine.
 Vibert First At Scene
 One of the first persons to reach the scene was Robert Vibert, who lived on a farm five miles away. To him and others who quickly gath cred, the two flyers were as much strangers as if they had landed from Mars. The isolated fisher and farm folk had heard only scant mention of the flight by radio and could not ascertain which was the injured flier, except that he was the bigger man." presumably Kok- khaki, or what had brought them down.
 One of the flyers laid out a map and with gestures, tried to conn., municate something that the by- islanders believed meant that they had lost their way in thick mist that prevailed.
 Villagers tried to take the in- jured man to town but he would not move from the plane. Vibert hurried home, prepared milk, bis- cults, sandwiches and coffee, and took them back.
 15 Miles Off Mainland
 The island is 15 miles from the mainland of New Brunswick. It is separated by a narrow strait from the island of Shippigan, which, in turn, is separated from the main- land by another strait. Both straits were ice-locked. Because of the in- accessibility of the region, rescue plans were indefinite.
 A cutter of the Royal Canadian mounted police put out early this morning from Chandler, Que, north of here, and tried to cross Chaleur bay to reach the scene. It could not negotiate the ice and turned back.
 Later, Constable Marcel Therriault of the Royal police put out in a rowboat from Little Shippigan in an attempt to cross the strait to Miscou Island in a rowboat from the south. He was accompanied by Dr. A. Robichaud. They were hav- ing to cross a mile of ice- damned water to reach Miscou Island, and then walk six miles through snow and ice from the coast to the scene of the crash, on the north tip of the island.
 Flyer May Be Hurt
 Fishermen here believed the flyer was seriously hurt and that it would be necessary to take him at once to the nearest hospital, at Bathurst, N. B. Nevertheless. both flyers were determined to stand by their plane until some of their countrymen ar- rived and they motioned back any of the villagers who approached too near.
 The time of the forced landing was fixed at about 7:55 p. m. (EST.) J. Several persons saw the plane cir cle for a landing and some said one of the motors was missing fire.
 Natives believed that it might be possible to land 8 rescue plane here if it were equipped with wheels, in- stead of skis, which would be use- less because of the ice cakes.
 Three Explanations
 Three explanations were given for the forced landing: D The plane ran out of fuel, having used more than was expected in fighting pre- vailing headwinds across the Atlan- tic that at times reduced its speed to 140 miles an hour: 9 The flyers lost their way; 3y The plane de- veloped mechanical trouble.
 The telephone operator at Miscou Plans took a call from a represen- tative of the Soviet embassy at Washington last night and sent 1t to the flyers. The message was in Russian and was spelled out in Eng fish letters over the telephone. It was believed to contain greetings to the men.
 The nearest airport was at Monc- ton, N. B., 125 miles south of here, and that was to be the base of res- cue operations.
 At 3:15 a. m. a plane left New York piloted by Al Lodwick, vice president of the American Aviation Corporation. and carrying pr. Louis Spector, engaged by the Russian em- bassy, and two representatives of Amtorg, Russian trading corpora ton. They were to land at Boston and transfer to one of two other planes waiting to take of there.