FROM DOOMED PLANE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 27, 23 April 1927, Page 1

FROM DOOMED PLANE

AVIATOR’S ESCAPE DESCENDS IN PARACHUTE By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 11.5 a.m. RUGBY, Friday. An officer of the Royal Air Force made a parachute descent to-day from i height of 8,000 feet, and landed ■afely. He was Flight-Lieutenant David Darcy Greig, of the Central Flying School. He had gone up from Henley in a single-seater fighting plane to carry out special tests when suddenly the machine was seen to be out of control and to be spinning towards the ground at a terrific pace. For some moments Greig could be seen making a desperate but vain effort to regain control. A few seconds later, when the machine appeared to be falling like a stone, the airman was seen to jump from the pilot's seat. He, too, was falling like a stone, when to the relief of the onlookers his parachute opened and he made a prolonged but safe descent, reaching the ground about two miles from his starting point. The airplane struck earth several minutes earlier and burst into flames. —A. and N.Z. .