Descent near Tsitsihar After Flight from Lo Bourget Osaka, Oct. 5.
'The "Asahi's" correspondent at] Harbin wires that, according to a report received there this iorning, the French aviator Costes and his compatriot, Bellonte, Ianded at a village near Tsitsihar at three o'clock yesterday afternoon. The' report gives the name of the village as Kowchinza.
Costes and his companion, it may be recalled, left Lo Bourget eight days ago in an attempt to establish' a world record for long-distance flight. A Moscow message dated October 1 stated that they flew! northward instead of eastward from Novo Sibirsk and were last seen at! two o'clock last Sunday afternoon over Kirensk.
The machine in which they set out is equipped with a 600 lip. engine and carried 6,200 litres of petrol Fuel Shortage Paris, Oct. 6.
It has now been confirmed that the French aviator Costes and his compatriot, Bellonte, Ianded- near Tsitsihar, north-east of Harbin, on September 29—Renter.
Tokyo, Oct, 7.
A message from Harbin states that the French Consul receive telegram from the French aviator, Costes, saying that he w: to land at a village 75 versts to the north of Tsitsihar on September 29 owing to a shortage of of and petrol. There is no mention of how Costes reached Tsitsihar from his landing place though the tele gram stated that both he and compatriot, Bellente, are now there and that both are well.
The French Consul has started for Tsitsihar to assist in the preparations for continuing the fig to Japan and also to obtain th necessary permission from the Chi nese authorities, A later message says that Costes hopes to fly to Mukden as soon as he has refuelled and from Mukden to Japan, In the meantime it seems certain that he has broken the non-stop record as he covered about 5,000 miles before being forced down.
'A message from Harbin to Rengo says that when shortage of fuel forced Captain Costes to land at a. village "north of Tsitsihar September 29 Chinese soldiers took' him into custody, believing him and. his companion Bellonte to be Soviet} military aviators, whereupon General Wan Fu-lin telegraphed to! Mukden announcing that his troops. had captured an enemy aeroplane and asking for instruction:
'This apparently was the reason why a week passed before assurance Jof the aviators' safety reached the outside world.
The two Frenchmen are reported to be living at present in General Wan Fu-lin's yamen at Tsitsihar as: guests but they-have not yet been. permitted to proceed and, therefore, the French Consul at Harbin went to Tsitsihar for the purpose of clearing up official obstacles and arrived there this morning.
Captain Costs has telegraphed stating that he landed after approximately 52 hours flying. He expressed disappointment in his wire that! shortage of fuel prevented him from reaching Japan.
A later message from Harbin reports that oil and petrol are being: sent him from Hailar and the aviator Fhopes to hop off for Japan on October 8 or 9.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.