Rescuing Airplane Thought Lost in Pacific
"WE ARE IN A SPIN!" IS ITS LAST MESSAGE
SHIPS IN VICINITY FLYING TO SPOT, IN HOPE OF SAVING DALLAS SPIRIT CREW
San Francisco, Aug. 19.—The monoplane Dallas Spirit, flying from Oakland to Auckland, N. Z., with Capt.
William Erwin, distinguished war ace, at the the controls, and A. H. Eichwaldt in the navigator's cabin, radiocast S O S indications of disaster at 9:05 tonight, saying the plane was in a tail spin. After a second tail spin, in which another S O S was put on the air, the radio became silent. It was 592 nautical miles from San Francisco.
The plane left Oakland at 2:15 this afternoon, intending to take up the search for two missing Dole flight planes, the Golden Eagle and the Miss Doran.
The nearest vessel to the point where the plane went into the spin was the steamer Pleidon, bound from Auckland, Australia, to San Francisco. The vessel moved under forced drought to reach the plane's position at 11 a.m., the radio corporation was notified by the captain.
The Message.
At 9.05 the "Dallas Spirit" flashed an S. O. S. call and said the plane was in a tail-spin. The radio then discontinued operation.
The message said:
"9:02 p. m.—We went into a tail-spin—S. O. S.—Delay that—We came out of it, but we're sure scared. It was a close call. We thought it was all off, but we came out of it. The lights on the instrument board went out and it was so dark that Bill couldn't see the—we are in a spin—S. O. S."
The naval radio station in San Francisco and the Radio Corporation of America immediately relayed the S. O. S. of the "Dallas Spirit" to all ships at sea. . .
The Helena Independent - Saturday, August 20, 1927
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