WOMAN'S DEATH LEAP

Shannon News, 16 November 1926, Page 2

WOMAN'S DEATH LEAP

PARACHUTE LEFT BEHIND

AWFUL SIGHT.

In the presence of a large crowd of people, estimated .at nearly 20,000, Mrs. Dorothy Cain', aged .25, of the Empire Hotel, Leicester,. fell from an aeroplane while attempting, a parachute descent, ftnd was killed. The distance'she fell is believed to bo about 1000 feet. She was taken up in the aeroplane by Captain Muir, of the Surrey Flying Services. Captain Muir, who has been giving exhibition flights in Leicester for the past fortnight, had askeld for women volunteers to go up with him and descend in a parachute.

■■' The first' volunteer to go up came down safely.

"Captain Muir states that exactly the same precautions were taken before the aeroplane left the ground. Mrs.,Cain was strapped to the parachute, arid as the machine ascended she waved to the "crowd, which cheered her heartily. When, however, she jumped from the aeroplane the crowd noticed to its horror that the parachiite did not become detached from 'the machine and Mrs. Cain fell\ in the middle of a crowd. , Councillor Whitby, - who followed the flight through a pair of field glasses, said that the aeroplane circled two or three times, apparency with the idea of finding a suitable place for the parachute to land. Then the woman jumped, and he saw that something had gone wrong and that the fastening had parted. It was ilke a leap to death. Captain Muir was unable to land at once owing to the big crowd,, and came down some two miles away. He hurried back and made a statement to the police.

To a "Daily Mail" importer Mr. Cain, the husband of the dead woman, said:—"l was watching the flight and waiting for my wife to make her parachute descent. The aeroplane was about 1500 feet up when my wife appeared like a specfc on one of the wings. She jumped, and—oh. my God! —J saw that she had jumped without her parachute. I cannot describe to you my feelings, but the parachute which was to have been fixed to her was found on the back of the aeroplane. I cannot say how my wife came to jump without a parachute. lam overcome with grief, and only hope that the matter will be cleared up when an inquiry is held.

wonder would they have looked nt the simplest of our twentieth century arrangements for comfort and conveniday can give to his wife and children what no king could supply to his roval family even 100 years ago.