PURSER SUCKED FROM PLANE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 102, 13 February 1950, Page 3

PURSER SUCKED FROM PLANE

ACCIDENT AT HEIGHT OF 8000 FEET STEWARD SAVED ON ANOTHER FLIGHT (N.Z.P.A.—Copyright) NEW YORK, Feb. 11. A man was sucked through the open door of a pressurised Atlantic airliner approaching New York early to-day and presumably plunged to his death. He was John Harris, purser on a Pan American World Airways Strato-, cruiser airliner. An airline spokesman said that Mr Harris was tugged through the dogr of the pressurised cabin when he accidentally opened it. The Stratocruiser was flying at a height of about 3000 feet. Mr. Harris tried to close the door and was caught in a roaring wind current and hurled out into space. The airliner was 45 miles east of New York on a flight from London. Air safety officials said they thought that a defective lock on the door caused the accident.

A search is being made for Mr Harris’s body. A few hours after this accident there was nearly a similar tragedy in an airliner over Florida. The rear door of a Constellation flying from Chicago to Miami flew open. The air suction drew the 'steward, Mr Marc Galati, hall' out of the door, but he managed to grip part of the aircraft. Passengers saw the incident and called out to the co-pilot, who rushed back and gripped Mr Galati’s legs. He held on to them until the aeroplane made an emergency landing at St. Petersburg, Florida. Mr Galati, a former paratrooper, was given a sedative, and after the door had been fixed went on with the aeroplane. On March 3, 1947, the navigator of a trans-Atlantic airliner was killed in a similar accident. He was sucked out of the aircraft at 19,000 feet when the plastic observation dome blew out.