CRASH IN ENGLAND

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 106, 7 May 1942, Page 8

CRASH IN ENGLAND

BISHOP BENNETT'S SON

(0.C.) HASTINGS, Wednesday. How he had a fortunate escape when the plane in which he was training crashed in England early in February is related by SergeantPilot E. T. Bennett, a son of the Bishop of Aotearoa, the Rt. Rev. F. A. Bennett, in a letter to a brother. The letter was written from the hospital where Sergeant-Pilot Bennett was recuperating. "I was involved in an aircraft accident and, considering the nature it, I was extremely lucky to get TJut of it as lightly as I did," he wrote. "I was flying a Hurricane when the engine suddenly cut out and smoke began pouring into the cockpit. I saw an aerodrome a little distance away and headed toward it. I lost a lot of height on the approach and I could not see a single instrument in the cockpit, as it was obscured by the smoke. "When I was almost on the boundary of the aerodrome, I had to raise the nose of the plane to get over a row of trees.'The plane stalled and one wing hit a tree and was torn off. The plane burst into flames. As soon as the machine touched the ground I was out like a shot. "I came out of that accident with only slight burns on the face and no other injuries at all."