STRANGLED BY NECKTIE

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 November 1935, Page 9

STRANGLED BY NECKTIE

AMAZING AEROPLANE MISHAP. Strangled into unconsciousness by his necktie when about to leap from an aeroplane nearly 2000 "feet above Southend Aerodrome, a boy parachutist was saved in dramatic fashion by his pilot. The parachutist was Mr. Denis Smith, a 19-year-old piloj, of Westcliff, who was making his fourth jump to qualify for his certificate. „ The aeroplane was piloted by Mi; A. W. Glover, the airport’s chief instructor. As. Mr Smith was climbing out of the cockpit to make -h'is jump, his tie blew ,out from under his overall, and, wrapping itself round one of the wires of the machine, tightened round his throat, making it impossible for him to breathe. He signalled to Mr Glover just before collapsing, and the latter seized him by his equipment. Before an alarmed crowd Mr Glover landed the aeroplane, a Gypsy Moth, half standing in the cockpit and with one hand gripping Mr Smith, who was hanging limply over a wing. The young parachutist was unconscious for about ten minutes before artificial respiration revived him. “After my tie had wrapped round the wire it tightened to stranglehold,” he explained on his recovery. “The end'Avas torn off by the wind pressure leaving the rest knotted round my throat. “I made a sign to Mr Glover, and the next thing I knew was that we bad landed and St. John Ambulance men were attending to me. They car ried me into the clubhouse and a doctor was brought.” Mr Smith, who is one of the youngest pilots in Great Britain, learned to fly a year ago. Recently, he made a forced landing at Widford, Essex, and five months ago he came down in a ploughed field after narrowly missing two trees.