'PLANE SHOT DOWN

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 444, 27 May 1937, Page 5

'PLANE SHOT DOWN

INCIDENT NEAR BILBAO PILOT’S MASTERLY LANDING Five Passengers Slightly Injured Press Association —Copyright. (Received 11 a.m ) London, May 26. A message from Bilbao states, th’alt rebel fighters shot down a British, made ’plane carrying mails and five passengers, including a woman, all of whom were slightly injured. The pilot, M. Galli, who was Eent to hospital, made a masterly landing, averting a complete disaster. The 'plane, which belonged* to .the Air Pyrenees (French) Line, was working the Bayonne-Bilbao air service, and came down at Sopelana, nine miles from Bilbao, partly destroyed.

Rebel aircraft had previously chased the machine, but it always outdistanced them. M. Galli said he became aware that he was being followed by insurgent planes, but was not disturbed*, because the plane was clearly marked “Air Pyrenees.” But later he became hemmed in by insurgent machines, which opened heavy machine gun fire. “My windscreen was cracked and, I suppose, the glass injured my head,” he statred. “The passengers flattened themselves on the floor. The engines failed* as I aearched for a landing place, and I lost consciousness the moment the ’plane touched the ground.”