AIR GIANT CRIPPLED

Evening Star, Issue 20917, 7 October 1931, Page 7

AIR GIANT CRIPPLED

WITHIN AGE OF TRAGEDY EIGHTEEN LUCKY PASSENGERS PILOT'S SKILL AND COOLNESS ■ Eighteen passengers gave thanks to Providence for their amazing escape in a mishap which well-nigh brought disaster to the giant luxury air liner Hannibal. While hying well over Kent on the way from Croydon to Paris in August the liner was suddenly crippled and forced to land in a field at Tudeloy, near Tonbridge. Coolness and skill of the pilot, it was agreed by those aboard, saved the Hannibal from crashing with tragic consequences. Damage, including loss of the tail, was done to the machine in alighting, but no person received injury. Minus her tail and exhibiting other signs of damage and strain, the Hannibal, the largest passenger-carrying machine in the world, came to rest like a wounded bird on the uneven surface of the meadow. The predicament m which she landed would without doubt have proved disastrous to her crew and passengers but for the masterly control exercised by the pilot, Captain Dismore, in bringing her huge bulk to earth in a most trying situation. The giant liner, which has seating capacity for thirty-eight people and is capable of a maximum speed of over 120 miles an hour, had. been on the Imperial Airways’ Loudon-to-Paris service for about a month, and she was ou her way from Croydon to Paris when trouble developed in the engine department while the machine was dying through mist and rain over Tonbridge. MOST MARVELLOUS LANDING. The position was one of gravity for Captain Dismore, who skilfully brought the Hannibal down in a long, sloping descent, passing over the roof of a cottage before coming to rest a few hundred yards from the Folkestone-Dover railway. Although the < passengers realised what was happening, there was not the slightest suggestion of panic or confusion. In the cabin among them was Sir Henry Birkin, the racing motorist. As the Hannibal glided groundward Sir Henry stood up and asked all present to keep calm. After the landing the passengers, who included four women, were taken to Lympno by car and later resumed their journey in another machine. “ At no time were wo flying higher than 1,000 ft,” stated one of the passengers, Mr L. J. Dawn, of Leicester, describing the mishap. 44 AVo wore at about 800 ft, I should think, when there was a spluttering sound and the niachine lurched very_ slightly. Looking out of the cabin window, I saw a long field a little way ahead. I thought we should land there, but we went over it, just missed a cottage and a dangerous dip in the ground, end then landed close to the road. We really made a most marvellous landing in the circumstances, and it is impossible to praise Captain Dismore too Irghly for the skill be displayed.” For a t>e officials of Imperial Airways were puzzled to account for the mishap. At first it was thought that one of the engines had 44 seized,” and then it was suggested that a propeller might have been damaged by a collision with a bird. After careful examinations the definite conclusion was drawn that one of the engines failed when the machine was nearing Tonbridge. An Imperial Airways official, giving further details, stated: — LARGE FACTOR OP SAFETY.

“ A piece of metal from the motor flew into one of the other propellers, breaking the blade. Tin’s caused the engine with tlio broken propeller to vibrato badly, and Captain Dismoro de-

elded to make a forced landing. Iu landing one of the wings hit a telegraph pole, snapping it in two like a match-stick, and the tail of the machine was torn off by some tree stumps. “The hull structure, the fuselage, and the two luxurious saloons were not damaged in any way, and, owing to the size and strength of the metal hull, none of the passengers suffered from shock or injury. In fact, they were not aware until they alighted that the machine had been damaged at all.” Some people on the ground who watched the Hannibal glide down declared that as she passed over they saw something fly from her, and directly afterwards all the engines stopped. Captain Dismore was iu charge of the air liner which fell into the sea in. October, 1926. It was duo to his handling of the situation that all the passengers escaped. He told them to climb through the emergency doors and craw I along the fuselage toward the tail. In this way the weight of the engine was counter-balanced until the arrival of boats from Folkestone. All the passengers were taken off safely. The Hannibal is the first of_ a fleet of eight great Handley-Page air liners which are being built for the crossChannel and Empire air route, and her maiden flight was made to Pans in June. Her factor of safety is regarded as markedly large. She is, for example, filled with brakes which make it possible for the machine, despite her great size and weight, to be pulled up immediately she touches the ground, rhus she is able to land in the smallest of fields, “ HERO OF THE OCCASION.” Ou reaching Lo Bourget with other passengers in the relief aeroplane, Sir Henrv Birkin gave some particulars ot his experience in the Hannibal. “It was a narrow escape,” he remarked. li About twenty-five minutes after wo left Croydon the propeller of the lower left-hand motor broke, the motor stopping at the sayic time. A .great-black-cloud came from the engine, and part of the propeller flew off and hit the tail. “ Captain Dismore was really the hero of the occasion. Ho was .responsible for saving the lives of tho passengers. AVheu he lauded all four propellers wore broken. The landing was really a splendid piece of work on his pa Mrs P. R. Robinson, of Exeter, a passenger, said: 44 It was all o\ er before I knew what was happening. There was no excitement, because Sir Henry Birkin took command of the situation inside the plane. AATiilo we were diving ho warned everyone to keep their bodies as limp as they could. “ AVheu one woman started to jump up Sir Henry said, ‘ Don’t get excited; everything will be all ( right/ It really a great comfort.”