SEA DIVE ESCAPE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 145, 20 June 1940, Page 18

SEA DIVE ESCAPE.

YOUNG PILOT'S ADVICE. LONDON, May 16. The experience of the young Royal Air Force pilot whose Spitfire caught fire after he had shot down a German Heinkel raider over the North Sea recently has had at least one good result. A new technique has been devised which may well save the lives of other British pilots... Trapped about 30ft under water in his rapidly sinking aircraft, the pilot had difficulty in freeing himself from the cockpit. He eventually did so, and swam to the surface, where he was rescued by a trawler. And here is the advice which he recommends to any fellow pilots who may find themselves in a similar predicament: "Before alighting on the water, tighten straps and inflate lifejacket, open hood and possibly door, close radiator flaps and pancake at 70 ni.p.h. The aircraft tucks ite nose into the sea, assumes a vertical position, tail up, and sinks. The pilot should release the harness and parachute, and to get

out push away hard to clear -tail 'plane."