10 SEPTEMBER 1927, Page 3

The Atlantic is taking a heavy toll of life from

the airmen. There is hardly a hope left for the safety of Colonel Minchin, Captain Leslie Hamilton, and Princess Lowenstein-Wertheim, who started to fly to America on Wednesday of last week. Their aeroplane was last seen in mid-Atlantic. The Fokker monoplane, 'Old Glory,' started from Old Orchard, Maine, on. Tuesday to fly to Rome. The pilots were Mr. Bertaud and Mr. James Hill and they carried a passenger. The aeroplane was so heavily laden that it had to run along the beach for nearly two miles before it would rise. It had a wireless apparatus and a boat of sorts. At a point about 1,700 miles from the American coast an S 0 S message was sent out, but though several liners rushed to the rescue, no trace of the aeroplane has been found when we write. The aes triplex of the human heart, so far from being daunted by these disasters, appears in fresh attempts, and fresh preparations for attempts, to dare a like fate. Another aeroplane is on its way as we write. One can only say that there is gain as well as loss in such manifestations of the human spirit, and we must also hope it is true that science is served by new experience of scarcely known conditions.

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