History of aviation – November 8, 1935. Although they had only been gone for two days, on November 8, 1935, concern gripped the people following the journey of Charles Kingsford Smith and Tommy Pethybridge. Indeed, both men are missing. Although they had taken off to try to beat the speed record on the route between England and Australia, we have no further news of them…
Traveling aboard the “Lady Southern Cross”, the name of their single-engine Lockheed Altair aircraft, they were lost from Allahabad in India, Charles Kingsford Smith and Tommy Pethybridge having flown to that city via Athens and Baghdad.
Both flying towards Singapore, pilot Melrose said he saw them: in the grip of a storm, their engine had caught fire. Everything therefore suggests that the sea, at the level of the Bay of Bengal, was their burial place. In March 1938, remains of their aircraft were found on Aye Island.
This record attempt led to their loss, Charles William Anderson Scott and Tom Campbell Black remaining the holders with two days, four hours and thirty-nine minutes.
