Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-07-13

A green flare was sighted by
a search ship just before mid
Passenger List and Pictures on Poge
AS
night Sunday in the general area
$50 miles east of Wake Island
where the Transocean Air Lines
DC-6B was last reported.
More than 10 planes converged
on the spot, but the searchers,
hampered by pitch darkness and
rain squalls, reported no further
Sightings.
The green flare was the type
carried in aircraft liferafts.
Raft Found on Oily Waters.
An empty raft and seat cush-
ion were found earlier on oily
waters in the same area.
The plane, bound from Guam
to Oakland. Calf, carried eight
children under 10 years old
among its so passengers and 8
crewmen. 1t disappeared Satur-
day night on the Wake to Homo
lulu hop.
1t was the first commercial
tranS-Pacif1c plane crash in that
section Of the Pacific since World
War II.
Raft Positively Identified.
The Navy transport Barrett,
one of at least 10 ships comb
ing waters where the plane last
reported its position, found an
reported its position, found the
cushion it positively identified
as coming from the liner.
Comdr. T. o. Murray, Hawai-
ian sea frontier operations Off
Ger and search co-ordinator.
said there is good chance
there is life around there"
I'VE will continue the search
with that in mind as long as
necessary" he said. There was
plenty Of room on four other
life RATS carried by the plane
and still unaccounted for"
Several entire families were
on the liner.
The pilot, Capt. William Word
of Oakland, Calf, a veteran
trans-Pacif1c flyer, reported in
by radio Saturday night with
no mention of trouble. There
were no further messages.
En- Route To Vacations.
Some of those aboard were
civilian workers, their wives and
families, en- route from Guam to
the United States for vacations.
One passenger was an employe
Of the airline. Charles Gallop OF
San Leandro, Calf. He was &C
companied by his wife and two
small children.
Another family included Ne
braska man, Fred Hansher, 20,
of Newman Grove, his wife, and
children, 3 and 6.
At its height yesterday, the
huge search included more than
20 planes and 10 ships. They
criss-croSsed the Pacific in a des-
perate race against approaching
darkness.
Just before dark, the Barrett
spotted the inflated life raft,
which carried carbon dioxide
bottles stamped with the initials
"TAL," meaning Transocean Air
Lines.
Distress Signals Heard.
Earlier, weak distress signals
were picked up for two hours in
the lonely Wake-Honolulu lane
but were believed originating
OOAA4C OAoGo11CC A4OA1A WLIC1C GIlC
plane presumably disappeared.
Although the signals were too
faint for an accurate bearing, the
Navy widened it's search to sweep
q greater eXpanSe.
The Barrett found other debris
amid 80 to 40 gasoline oil Sticks
where the plane apparently
plunged into the bleak waters.
It was only 80 miles from the
point where the plane last re-
ported its position.
A Japanese fishing boat in
those waters. however, said it had
not seen any crash.
Another passenger plane re-
ported seeing a green flare in
the area, but the Hawaiian sea
frontier said there was no indica-
ton the fare came from the
plane.
Transocean said this was its
first Pacific accident in more
than billion passenger miles
of worldwide operations since
1916
The plane was on a non
scheduled flight.