FLYING WITH ITS DEAD.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 171, 17 July 1918, Page 3

FLYING WITH ITS DEAD.

AEROPLANES LONG CIR'OLE TO

EARTH

Details of an ainazh:,g flight of a British airplane for two hours with itstwo occupants dead are supplied by a well-known flying officer who recently returned to London from Arras. "The incident referred to," he said.

"is quite authentic and was a common Topi£_of__xfliiservation a few daya ago. Cf■ course, there is absolutely no Teaton why a, machine should' not, under average conditions. flv itself so long ,as its> petrol holds out. This is not an exceptional incident of the kind, and certainly there have ibeeu casts where German machines, have been captured with their pilots dead. So far •\s I know, the facts are that this T-a-istol fi.gnter, which, of course, is a two-seater with guns fore and aft, took oil* about hal£-past one p.in. The wind' conditions were almost negligible, making it : very good fiyiiijr weather. There was a great number of miscellaneous ciaft widely scattered' over No "Man's Liana. The British airmen, at an estimated altitude, of 3500 ft., when they would be running at 80 miles or thereabouts, encountered a German Albatross. ' They at once attacked. A lot of manoeuvring followed, and three other machines, two of them German, came into action. The Bristol machine himg on to its quarry, and eventually got it well under the nose, the German crashing dowai. "Immediately afterwards our machine made o, sweep south. It had lost height in manoeuvring, and was rockJug badly, as if out of control, but it kept steadily on until it was lost to view. At a little before 4 o'clock the machine, which was. of course, oasilyi identified, fell crashing to earth nearly 20 miles to the west of Arras. 'On \ examination both its occupp •' - were I found to be dead, obviously ho'-i bullet - wounds, which had l struck them from the back, and which must at oirce have proved fatal. Their iniurjes on coining .down certainly .did not cause their »!<eßAh.- The >pdtrcll V.'.nk of I their machine was found.' to T>e .empty. There •is no dor.bt the two men wore shot immediately the German Albatross fell. The . Bristol machine, ... w~*iich is the be.«t and most perfectly, controlled fi.adjtuig machine known, . of its own ■volition.. • swept on ,a, .fairly- even keel tu a distance of possdibly ten miles below the point, where the battle took place. Then, for some reasons which never, will be known, the controls were shifted and a circle was made- In view ,-of ■ the. fact that the total distance covered must nave, been much under. 160 miles, it appears certain the machine lost .sneed and heicht graduallv, -posStblv due to some minor but not vital injury to the- en«ine. umvards of two hours the two dead men were in the air before the final crash to ea*rth."