South Africa 1932 Imperial Airways Upington Accept 1/-'s Signed

SA: 1932 IMPERIAL AIRWAYS Inaugural Flight First Regular Airmail Cape Town - London: January 27th, the so-called "Lost Airmail": UPINGTON ACCEPTANCE Envelope franked strip of three 1/- Airs (variety "white spot under U" on one) tied Upington cds 27 JAN. relevant registration & arrival marks. SIGNED BY PILOTS, CAPT RF CASPAREUTHUS and CAPT AO WRIGHT. VF, a scarce signed cover thus. Ex Barry Smith. Unfortunately the inauguration of this service was marred by misfortune. On takeoff from Salisbury the northbound "City of Basra" was damaged; Thereafter the relief machine "City of Delhi" made a forced landing in a swamp 50 miles south-east of Broken Hill. The crashed machine was temporarily lost and, when found, it's mails were transferred by native carriers to Broken Hill where they were forwarded northbound together with the second Cape Town to London mail which had left on 3rd February. Thus the arrival date stamp of the subject cover of 17th February!