PARACHUTIST IN PERIL

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 12 September 1935, Page 5

PARACHUTIST IN PERIL

SAVED BY PILOT’S SKILL DRAGGED BACK TO SAFETY LONDOX. July SO. The resourcefulness of a pilot saved a parachutist from death at the air port at Southend.

Dennis gjiiiith, when the ’plane had climbed 1200 ft, got out on the lower wing to jump. The wind caught his tie and wound it round a stay. He was helpless. The pilot, A. M. Glover, sa\y that Smith was being suffocated. He let so the controls, stood up in the cockpit. grasped hold of the parachute, pulled Smith towards him, and cut the necktie with a knife. Then, holding Smith with his right hand, he operated the controls with his left and with his knee and safely landed the ’plane. Mr. Smith* senr., witnessed the landing. Smith was still uneoneious. A doctor was summoned and attended to him. He said that another few seconds would have proved fatal. TO CARRY ON -• .. After treatment Smith came round. “I can only surmise,” he said, that as I was about to let go my tie must have slipped out and got' caught in the wind, wound round a stay and pulled tight like a noose. “But for the presence of mind of Mr. Glover and his marvellous airmanship I should eventually have dropped to the ground and been killed instantly. I was unconscious, so there would have been no nope of my parachute opening. “I have not let this upset nit plans. It is all in the day’s work. I intend going on to get my parachutist certificate and hope to complete my jumps within a fortnight.” Smith had made thi'ee previous parachute descents. On one he was knocked f.inconcious when his head struck the ground; at another he received a black eye.