EFFECTIVE HEROISM

Hokitika Guardian, 2 June 1930, Page 8

EFFECTIVE HEROISM

JAPANESE AIRMAN’S ACT

LONDON, April 24

Eiight-Lieuentant Kabaya.shi, of the •jnpnrcso A-my, who is undergoing a course of instruction with the Royal Air Force, went up in a Siskin fighting aeroplane at Hornchurch (Essex) last week.

iHe had been,in the air only five minutes when ( his machine burst into flames at a height of 1000 feet, and began to fa,!! ■ directly over the aerodrome. It was then the thirty-year-old Japanese airman risked death to save his hosts from possible injury. The parachute and safety were at hand, but instead he lingered on in the blazing machine manoeuvring with the controls until he had set the iuiehine in a nose-dive away from the menaced buildings. Not till then did he jump from the burning machine. His parachute opened and lie landed in a small wood. His overalls were singed and he was cut and scratched, but otherwise was unhurt. A vivd story of the crash was told by an eye-witness. “I watched the aeroplane manoeuvring for a few minutes, when flames burst from the machine,” lie said. “I expected to see the pilot jump for his life. Instead he remained in the machine. Apparently lie was afraid to let the blazing aeroplane fall on the aerodrome and cottages immediately below. ‘‘Then I saw the machine fall into l dive away from the aerodrome, and a second later the pilot jumped out and bis parachute opened up. The machine was wrecked.”