TERRIBLE FALL.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17748, 11 March 1927, Page 5

TERRIBLE FALL.

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PARACHUTIST DROPS w YEET.

strikes a roadway. MOTOR PASSENGERS HORRIFIED SPECTATORS.;

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LONDON. March 10. Corporal East, of the Air " Force, was engaged in a parachute trial at Beggan. He stepped put of an air plane. ,The parachute did not open and he crashed on the roadway in front of a motor bus, being killed instantly. An eye-witness says he heard the body whistling through the air. East left the plane at a heighfc of -60(00 feet. The parachute actually opened 100 feet from the ground but too late to arrest the fall, If he \had gone another 20 yards further he would have reached a deep valley and . mighfc have alighted safely. He was one of the most experienced parachutists in the Air &ervice. It has transpired that he was engaged in hundreds of experiments in' long drops to demonstrate that air for.ee men could fall long distances before releasing the opening ring. Passengers on a motor bus were the horrifi,ed witnesses of East's fall. A motor cyclist who failed to see the conpng accidept only avoided the airman, who was coming down at three hundred miles an hour, by rurining his , machine into a hedge. Mr Row, an eye-witness, says ! at first East fell steadily. He then began to roll over and over. He believes this confused East and made it difficult for him to estimate the distance from the ground. The victim leaves a widow and a weeks' old baby boy.