ÆRIAL HORROR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 113, 28 September 1912, Page 8

ÆRIAL HORROR.

TIED TO BLAZING BALOON. PARACHUTIST'S FIGHT WITH • • -DEATH. Toledo (Ohio), September 23. A sight which caused many women to become hysterical. with fear and froze the blood of the hundreds of spectators who had crowded into the Fair Grounds was witnessed this morning. Powerless •to help, they had to stand, overcome with horror, and,wa,tch Frank Armstrong fight fqr his life in.a-"blazing baloon 2000 feet above their heads.

Armstrong had ascended in a hot-air balloon to make a parachute descent, but the fabric of the balloon caught fire, and one : side of it was soon hidden in flames. Yet still it rose in the air, a smoking, blazing mass. Hundreds of terror-stricken spectators shrieked frantically to Armstrong to cut away the parachute, but, fortunately for himself, he did not attempt to do so till the -balloon-had risen to a height of nearly 1000 ft. Had he done so sooner the parachute might not have had time to open, and he would have been dashed to the ground. But a more thrilling moment was to come. When at last Armstrong tried to release the parachute it was seen that the ropes had become entangled; and that it could not be dragged clear. The balloonist was now struggling like a madman, for at any moment the parachute itself might catch fire; He. tugged frantically on the release cord,.but. still-the parachute would not drop..; -

Armstrong was then seen to sit quietly and dejectedly on tire bar of the parachute as though he had abandoned hope and only a waited death. Suddenly the parachute separated from the blazing balloon of its • own accord. The lire must have burnt through the tangled ropes which were holding it. Armstrong dropped safely and landed in a field.