BALLOON ADRIFT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20623, 23 July 1930, Page 13

BALLOON ADRIFT.

adventures of two men.

OFFICER CARRIED HEAD DOWN. The following are the exciting adventures of two men in a. balloon tlvingOfiicer Pclham C.rooin and Sergeant G. W. Robinson, of the Kite Balloon detachincut? Royal Air Force, stationed at Trawsiynydd Artillery Camp, Merionethshire:— Balloon—looft. long when inflatedbroke loose from mooring on June 12, after occupants had been observing survey practice. Ascended several thousand feet. Drifted over Arenig mountains toward Bala. j Descended, but did not land, and near.y I struck electric-power transmission wires of North Wales J'ower Conipai,v In Cwniterinynach district <•! Bola, 15 I miles from starting-place. .Sergeant Robinson jumped out, was cut about the eye and temporarily dazed. Flying-Officer Groom tried to jump out. but. his legs became entangled and he was suspended, head downwards, from the basket. Balloon drifted away with the suspended officer still-head downwards, and Sergeant Robinson rushed after it. Balloon bumped tho earth several times and the sergeant chased it for nvo miles, through ditches, thickets, hedges and bogs. Near n farm the sergeant, released the officer, who was not injured, in spite of tho fact, that he had been hanging head downwards during the whole of tlie two miles. .\ftcr this the balloon went bumping and drifting across several counties, and came to resV early in the morning between two cliffs on the "bleak moorlands of Yorkshire. eight miles from Halifax, lis resting place was on the moor called Lower Booth Dean, above Rishworlh, a mile within the Yorkshire border from Lancashire. Ti, apparently trailed across the rock-strewn moorland, which badly damaged the envelope. When it was found the car was half full of water.