This Day in History: 1928-01-12

The first flight over the Owen Stanley ranges in New Guinea was made. On the morning of 12 January 1928, with the mountain ranges clear of cloud cover, Ray Parer and George Fonteneaux in the DH-9 G-AUFS and Charles Pratt and Bert Moss in the Bristol Fighter G-AUEB took off from Ela Beach, Port Moresby and slowly climb steadily to over 12,000 feet making for the Gap in the Owen Stanley Ranges. They passed over Kokoda under cloud cover and when over the sea on the north coast, safely descended though heavy rain to 1,000 feet and followed the coast north to Salamaua then to Lae where they landed. This was the first flight over the Owen Stanley Ranges and took just under three hours. Source: parerhistory.wordpress.com