'PLANE FLIES WITH DEAD PILOT.

Taihape Daily Times, 26 July 1918, Page 5

'PLANE FLIES WITH DEAD PILOT.

AN EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE. An amazing flight of a British air-* plane for two hours with its two oc« cupants dead was briefly referred ta in a message from the fighting front; recently. Now fuller details are sup-, plied by a well-known flying officer who returned to London from Arras. •'The incident referred to," he said, "is qhite authentic and wsa a common topic of conversation a few days ago. Of course there is absolutely no reason why a machine should not, under average. conditions, fly itself so long as its petrol holds out. This is not an exceptional incident of the kind, and! certainly there havo been cases where Germans machines have been capture'3 with thir pilots dead. "So far as I know, the facts are that this Bristoll fighter, which, of course, is a two-seater, with guns fore and aft, took off about half-past 1 p m. The wind conditions were almost negligible, making it very good flying weather. There was a great deal of miscellaneous craft widely scattered over 'No Man's Land.' "The British airmen, at an estimated altitude of 3,500 ft,, when they would be running at eighty miles or. thereabouts, encountered a German Albatross. They at once attacked. A lot of manoeuvring followed, and three other two of them German, came into action. <' The British machine hung on to its quarry, and eventually got it well under the nose, the German crashing down. Immediately our machine made a sweep south. It had lost height in manoeuvring and was rocking badly, as if out of control; but it kept steadily on until it was lost to view. "At a little before 4 o'clock the machine, which was, of course, easily identified, fell crashing to earth nearly twenty miles to the west of Arras. On examination both its occupants were found to bo dead, -obviously from bullet wounds, which.had struck them from the back, and which must at once have proved fatal. "Their injuries on coining down certainly did not cause their death. The petrol-tank of their machine was found to be empty. ■ "'There is no doubt the two men were shot immediately the German Albatross fell. The Bristol machine, which is the -best and most perfectly controlled fighting machine known, of its ow volition swept on a fairly even keel to a distance of possibly ten miles below the point where the battle took, place. ~ e ! "Thpn,-for some reason which will be known, the controls were shifted, ad a circle was* made, In view of the fact that the total distance covered mus have been much under one hundred and sixty miles, it appears certain the machine lost speed and height gradually, possibly due to some minor but not vital injury to the engine. "For upward of two hours the two dead were in the air before the final crash to earth ''