PLUCKY AIRWOMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20538, 12 April 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

PLUCKY AIRWOMAN.

LOSS OF A LEG,

STILL GOING ON FLYING.

Miss Sicele O'Brien, the British airwoman who lost a leg in an aeroplane crash 16 months ago, has taken up flying again. Before her crash in 1928 Miss 0 Brien was one of Britain's foremost women pilots. She was the second woman in England to obtain a " B " flying licence enabling her to undertake commercial flying.

" I have been flying on a dual instruction machine at Hanworth aerodrome for some time, but I have not flown solo since my accident. I want to get a machine of my own so that I can fly alone."

Miss O'Brien's accident occurred in October, 1928, when she was flying with the Hon. Miss M. K. Leith in a Moth machine, which crashed on Mill Hill golf links. Miss O'Brien was found almost unconscious in the wreckage, and was rushed to hospital, where her leg was amputated above the knee.

She has had her "A" licence, entitling her to fly privately, renewed by the Air Ministry, which means that she is considered competent to control a machine despite the loss of a limb. Miss O'Brien is the daughter of Sir Timothy and Lady O'Brien, and before her accident was well known as a huntswoman and a tennis player. During the war she served as an ambulance driver, and took up flying as a sport about four years ago. She won the first women's air race in England, the Aerial Oaks, at Bournemouth. In 1927 she- started her own air business, running her " Moth " as an air-taxi.