DRAMATIC FLIGHT

Northern Advocate, 24 October 1935, Page 5

DRAMATIC FLIGHT

SICK CHILD FOR HOSPITAL. blue mountains storm. SYDNEY, October 8. Pilot J. Small, of the W.A.S.P. Airlines, flew through a storm raging over the Blue Mountains so that a sick child in his ’plane could receive special treatment at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children as soon as possible. He landed at Mascot . in the dark, and an ambulance rushed the child to hospital. In the early morning, Pilot Small left for Narromine on the regular weekly trip, accompanied by Pilot R. Godsall. Soon after leaving Sydney they met bad weather, and at Penrith conditions were so bad that they were forced to return to Mascot. At 12.40 p.m. a telegram was received from Leeton, ordering a special ’plane to bring the sick child to Sydney. Although conditions over the Blue. Mountains had in no way improved, Pilot Small did not hesitate. In five minutes the two-engined Codock ’plane was flying once again into the storm. Rising to 4500 feet, the ’plane cleared the mountains and arrived at Leeton at 2.30 p.m. An hour later it had left for Sydney, carrying besides the pilots Mr and Mrs E. James and their two-year-old son, Bobbie, who was suffering from pneumonia. Leeton doctors had given the child only one chance—special treatment in Sydney. The weather at Leeton was warm and fine, but the pilots knew there was a storm ahead. Soon the ’plane was in a bank of thick cloud. There were some tense moments over the Blue Mountains when the pilot was forced to come down to 3600 feet, leaving a dangerously small margin of safety. At 6.57 p.m. the lights of the ’plane were sighted from Mascot Aerodrome. Red obstruction lights gleamed from all hangars and kerosene flares were lit for four hundred yards. The ’plane circled the aerodrome once; When not more than 20 feet from the ground it was caught by a sudden gust and rocked. It rose sharply and came down to a perfect landing. A few minutes later the sick child and its parents were in the ambulance. Interviewed after he had climbed out of the cockpit, Pilot Small said that the weather over the Blue Mountains on the return journey was the worst he had ever experienced. Mr Godsall said he had never encountered worse weather.