AIRMAN'S WEIRD ORDEAL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2708, 1 March 1916, Page 6

AIRMAN'S WEIRD ORDEAL

SAT ON DEAD MAN'S LAP AT 10,000 FEET. How his pilot was killed at a height, of 10,000 feet, and how he brought tho machine safely to earth by sitting on the dead man's lap, after dropping half the distance in 20 seconds, is related ill a letter just received'from a young officer attached to tho Royal Flying Corps, now a prisoner in Germany. "I was (he writes) captured in December, and I met two German officers there who knew several English people that I know, and they were most awfully kind to me. They gave me a very good dinner- of champagne and oysters, etc.. and I was treated like an honoured guest. I came by train the next day to M——,. whoro I was confined in a room by myself for two days. I have now been moved into a general room with eight other English officers, where we sleep and eat. AVc are treated .very well, and play hockey and tennis in the prison yard. "Poor 8.l I was so sorry he was killed. He was such a nice 'boy, and only 19. I had a fight with two German aeroplanes, and then a shell burst very close to us; and I heard a large piece whizz past my head.. Then tho aeroplane started to come down head first, spinning all the time. AVe must have dropped about 5000 feet in about 20 seconds.. I looked round at onco and saw poor 8., with a terrible wound in his head, quite dead. I then realised that the i.nly chance of saving my life was to step over into his seat and sit on his lap, wlicro I could reach tho controls. "I managed to get the machine out of that terrible death plunge, switched off the engine, and made a good landing on terra firma. I shall never forget it as long as I live. The shock was so great that I could hardly remember a single thing in my former life for two-days. Now I am getting better and my mind is practically normal again. "We were 10,000 feet up when B. was killed, and luckily it was this trcmen- ! dons height that gave mo time to i think and act.. I mot one of the pilots i of the German machines which attack- J ed me. Ho could sneak English quite woll. 'ind wo shoo!.' bands after a most thrilling fight. I brought down bis aeroplane with my machine-gun, and lie bad to lnnd quite close to where I landed. There was a bullet through his radiator and petrol tank, but neither i lie nor his ohseri-cr was touched." j