Capricornus Crash

This week Britain will take another hitch in the communications belt of her farflung Empire when, for no extra charge, all first-class mail between the colonies and the mother country will begin to be carried by air. Exception is Canada, no scheduled North Atlantic service yet being in effect. To haul the estimated 20 tons of mail which will leave London each week, Imperial Airways, long equipped with huge old rattletraps, has acquired a fleet of 28 Short Brothers four-motored flying boats. Last week the Empire's great new airmail network hit a snag before it could be formally inaugurated.

The Capricornus took off from Southampton with five men, one woman and 65 mailsacks to fly non-stop to Alexandria on a final experimental trip. Over Lyons a few hours later the British pilot ran into a severe snowstorm. Inept like most European airmen at blind flying, he got lost, circled through the murk while the radioman sent out an SOS. Before he could get his bearings, the pilot scraped his wing on a fir tree, smacked full tilt into the side of Mont du Beaujolais, killed everyone but the radioman, who crawled two miles through the snow for help. To England the news was as shocking as the crash of the China Clipper would be to the U. S.

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