cross-country to New York in September 1935 and had the Lady Southern Cross put on a ship to England. After obtaining a British airworthiness certificate, and having been turned back once by a hailstorm over Italy, Kingsford Smith and co-pilot Tommy Pethybridge left Croydon Airport in London on 6 November 1935 in an attempt to break the England to Australia speed record set during the MacRobertson Air Race. Disappearance Kingsford Smith and Pethybridge were flying the Lady Southern Cross overnight from Allahabad, India, to Singapore (c.2200 mi.), while attempting to break the England-Australia speed record, when they disappeared over the Andaman Sea in the early hours of 8 November 1935. Aviator C.J. Melrose claimed to have seen the Lady Southern Cross fighting a storm 150 miles from shore and 200 feet over the sea with fire coming from its exhaust. Eighteen months later, Burmese fishermen found an undercarriage leg and wheel (with its tyre still inflated) which had been washed ashore at Aye Island in the Gulf of Martaban, off the southeast coastline of Burma, some south of Mottama (formerly known as Martaban). Lockheed confirmed the undercarriage leg to be from the Lady Southern Cross. Botanists who examined the weeds clinging to the undercarriage leg estimated that the aircraft itself lies not far from the island at a depth of approximately . The undercarriage leg is now on public display at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia. In 2009 a Sydney film crew claimed they were 100% certain they found the Lady Southern Cross. The location of the claimed find was widely mis-reported as "in the Bay of Bengal" - the 2009 search was at the same location where the landing gear had been found in 1937, at Aye Island, in the Andaman Sea. However, this claim was treated with scepticism by well-known businessman and pilot, Dick Smith, while Kingsford Smith's biographer, Ian Mackersey, described it as "complete nonsense". See also List of people who disappeared mysteriously at sea Southern Cross (aircraft) References External links Ian Mackersey Ron Cuskelly 1930s missing person cases Aviation accidents and incidents in 1935 Individual aircraft Missing aircraft People lost at sea