A FLYING SAMARITAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 33, 8 February 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

A FLYING SAMARITAN.

Ensign Lindow has received a Carnegie award for gallantry.

And who, asks a reader, is Ensign Lindow? s

All Sweden knows. It is a question that could never be asked in Lapland.

First of all, think of the Northern wilderness in winter. Think of the people living in lonely settlements, wrestling with frost and enow for a living, and cheerfully, enduring all sorts of hardships save one. That one exception is the fear which overshadows their lives. Suppose they fall ill or break a limb. What will happen to them, with, all those vast stretches of ice and snow between them and a doctor or surgeon ?

Then think of the air stations at Boden, Froesoen and Stockholm. A wireless call for help comes from some place the wilderness. Can the air ambulance fly to the rescue?

It may mean setting out in the dark, with no knowledge of a landing-place. As often as not a snow storm is raging. The pilots might justifiably say: "It is no use risking tfrree lives. I will try next morning."

But the pilots of, the Swedish Red Cross air ambulances have flown in such appalling conditions that they have deserved the hero worship which surrounds them. They are known as the Plying Samaritans. Perhaps the two most famous names are those of Sergeant Cornelius (who has won the Royal gold medal for meritorious deeds, the gold plaque of the Swedish Aero Club, and.,a Carnegie award) and Ensign Lindow. There are endless tales of the lives they have saved by dangerous flights made at a moment's notice.

Once Ensign Lindow was asked, if he would bring a woman to hospital for an urgent operation. He found her tied to her bed and raving in delirium. She was a powerful woman, and fought those who would have helped her, but after a struggle, she was got into the air ambulance, strapped to a stretcher.

The weather was bad, and the ground was bad. After several efforts to get off, Ensign Lindow found he could only do it by leaving his mechanic behind. That was a risky thing to do, but Lindow depided to take the risk rather than delay taking the poor woman to hospital. After he had flown Some way he looked back and saw a sight which filled him with horror. With a strength born of madness, the woman had struggled out of her bonds and was trying to get out of the 'plane. Lindow climbed up on the back of his seat and grasped her just in time. He made the rest of that journey with an arm about the struggling woman, while he piloted the' 'plane with one hand. ~" * • ' •.

Twice they ran into blinding snowstorms, but the nightmare flight came to an end at last. Directly they reached the Air Ambulance station the woman was rushed to hospital, and surgeons performed an operation whifch saved her life and sanity and the life of her child. y

As for Lindow, he was so .numb with cold and so exhausted by his struggle that lie could hardly stand. But it was all in the work of a Flying Samaritan-: . i

No wonder the people of Northern Sweden make heroes of these knigh'terrants of the air.