In an Air Crash

Hawera Star, Volume L, 20 December 1930, Page 11

In an Air Crash

; WITH an increasing roar the aero- ! plane speeds across the aeroj drome. The youthful pilot on his first “solo’ 7 watches the needle creep .up on the revolution counter. One nand is on the throttle, the other on the “joystick” correcting any tendency to

! swerve. I Tli© tail of the machine gees up, the I pilot gives her a little more throttle, . ti.e pumps cease, and he is in the aii. I “Left it a bit late, but not so bad,” I exclaim the watching instructors on f the ground. 1 The machine climbs slowly. It avoids the hangars by forty yards; it nan-on-ly misses the telegraph wires on the road bordering the aerodrome. Suddenly, without warning, the steady drone of the powerful motor , dies away in a splutter and stops, t The young pilot obeys- his first nn- . pulse—to' get back to the ’drome. He f puts his stick over and kicks on left ! rudder. The ’plane banks steeply and ‘ begins to turn. 'i “The damn fool —oh, the damn fool!” wails one of the instructors. The next second what lie has been fearing happens. Losing its Hying speed the machine goes- into a spin. In a moment it is hurtling to earth out of control. Wlute-l'aeed, the pilot tugs at- Ins [ controls, but it is too late. He has nob I enough height to recover himselt “Ambulance!” yells one of the instructors, beginning to run across the aerodrome.

There is a crash that can be heard a mile away, followed by a rending of fabric and a era,skiing of wood. Then a blue, spiral of smoko coils up into the air.

That is all. Another young pilot has gone to his doom. He has disregarded one of the cardinal/points of Hying—-never turn hack if your engine “conks’’—and he has paid the penalty. That is the- history of scores of flying accidents; it is the swift sequence of misfortunes- that has sent- a tragic procession of promising young men to their deaths in the. hey-dey of their youth. Progress always exacts its toll, and no branch of it has claimed more victims than man’s conquest of the air. From the very earliest days the history of Hying is dotted with tragic monuments to men who lost their lives when “something went wrong.” During the past four years the number of crashes and deaths in the 11.A.E. is as follows: Crashes. Deaths. 1920 54 85 1927 37 54 1928 5)0 70 1929 31 , 42

First Impressions of Survivors

Miraculous Escapes Recounted

Then there is the long list of civilian pilots who have been killed since flying became popular as a sport. Mid before them are the hundreds of young men who were killed while learning to fly during the war, arid the early pioneers who went bravely up in machines little more substantial than box-kites. What does it feel like to crash i —to plunge helplessly out of the sky and drop like a plummet with the earth rushing up to meet you at dizzy velocity

“Nobody who lias not been in a bad crash can possibly know what it feels like,” a well-known pilot who has been in two serious smashes told a “Sunday Chronicle” representative. -The fir-st time 1 crashed I was flying a singleseater scout-. About two thousand feet lip .1 heard an ominous- snap. Then, to my horror, I saw one' o.f the wings slowly fold back. “The next minute 1 was spinning to earth like a huge top. There was notiring I could do. I had no parachute; no amount of human skill could possibly get the machine under control. I could onl\- sit tight and wait for the end.

“What does a- man leel when he is a few seconds away from almost certain death They say that all his past life hashes before him like a cinematograph film. Mine certainly didn’t. J remember the earth and sky getting" mixed up like a kaleidoscopic, nightmare as I twirled round, and round, down and down, like a. helpless leaf.

“I remember —though I knew it was no use—working frantically at the controls. My head seemed full of noises; my ears (reacting to the quick changes of atmospheric pressure—felt as if they were going to burst-. I could scarcely get my breath. “Once the machine turned over on its hack, then it went headlong down again in a dizzy, sickening plunge. I saw the earth rushing up to meet me at 309 miles an hour. Another second —and it- would be all over. “A vision of my wife flashed before me. \\ hat would she do when I was gone y I. remembered she hadi not wanted me to go up that morning. “Then, suddenly,' came u shattering mar that- seemed to All the whole world, followed by a tearing and rending of woodwork and fabric. A bright flame seemed to fill my brain—then utter darkness.

“i did not know until I recovered consciousness two days later in hospital that my machine had crashed on the top of a clump of tall trees—a fact which undoubtedly saved mv life.” 'I he pilot’s other had crash occurred when lie was flying a two-seater with a passenger in the rear seat. “I had just taken off.” he said, “when my engine ‘conked.’ Ahead was a line of telegraph wires, then a factory, and beyond that a field.

“It was fatal to try and turn back, as 1 was losing trying speed every second.. The only thing to do was to keep straight on ancl trust to luck to make the field. . . “I’ll never forget that agonising 1110ment when 1 seemed to be heading straight for the wires. I must have cleared them by inches. “I don't think I was able tq : do any clear thinking at that moment. I was onlv conscious of a feeling of utter helplessness. The next second 1 hit the factory, and once again I knew nothing more till I woke up in hospital." Not long ago two young men crashed in a light aeroplane. They went up a. joy 'flight, got into a spin at two thousand feet, and were unable to get out of it before the machine crashed into a clump of trees. I Onlookers rushed to the spot, ex-j pec ting to find the men smashed to pieces. To their astonishment they saw two figures stagger out of the wreckage, slightly cut about the face, but otherwise apparently little the worse.

“We’re all right—don’t worry, gasped the pilot. They walked over to a waiting car. took a drink that was proffered them, and then collapseii. Actually they were both seriously injured, and spent several months in hospital. One day the aerodrome authorities were astonished to see a rSachine doing the most hair-raising stunts a. few hundred feet from the ground. “He’ll kill himself,’* said everybody, and signals were put out to the rash airman to come down.

ft didn’t make any difference. The machine went on rolling and looping Gambolling in the sky like a frisky lamb. When, finally, it landed and the irate aerodrome authorities rushed, up it was discovered that it was the pilot whom everybody thought was still in hospital. He had only been discharged the previous afternoon, and had taken up a ’plane to prove that lie had not lost 1 iis- nerve. it is the same spirit that is to be found in almost every young pilot. 1 ittle more than fresh-faced boys, most of them, yet they face danger with a grin, and laugh at the idea of “wind up.” It is astonishing what extraordinary accidents men- can be in and - still escape with their lives. The history of training schools is dotted with instances of imen who Handed upside down, .smashed their machine,to pieces, or performed some incredibly foolish feat, yet calmly walked out of the wreckage as if nothing had happened. It save something for the skill of those who wing their way across the great airways day in day ■ out, year after year, that there are so few. accidents and that flying is ns. safe as it is.. . .