LIFE SAVED BY PARACHUTE

Southland Times, Issue 24755, 28 May 1942, Page 4

LIFE SAVED BY PARACHUTE

Invercargill Airman

Another Invercargill airman has qualified for membership of the Caterpillar Club by baling out of his aeroplane to save his life. He is Sergeant-Pilot Philip Irving, son of Mr H. S. Irving, of Invercargill. While on a cross-country trip from Scotland to England in bad weather the controls of his aeroplane were affected by ice and he and his crew had to jump by parachute. • “I was flying above cloud with everything going nicely when suddenly the engines cut out because the carburettors had iced up,” Sergeant-Pilot Irving stated in a letter to an aunt in Invercargill. “I had no alternative but to go down into the clouds. As soon as I got into them ice started forming all over the plane, covering up the windows. I could not see a thing outside and at the same time all the instruments froze up. Then to top matters off the controls froze, too. By this time things were pretty hopeless. The plane was going down in a dive with no hope of pulling it out, so I decided it was high time we were getting out. I ordered my crew to bale out and when they were all out, which seemed to take a very long time, I got out myself. “As soon as I was clear of the aircraft, I pulled the rip cord and the next thing I krfew was when I came to about two hours later, sitting on the edge of a stream. I could n'ot remember anything about the aeroplane at all. When I saw the -parachute I realized I must have jumped. By this time it was starting to get dark and to freeze. I did not like the idea of having to spend a night in the open, so I began to make my way down the stream. I could not walk and had to crawl. I did not get very far before I felt very dizzy and had to sit down again. I was only there a few minutes when a search party found me and took me down to the local police station. The rest of my crew had collected there. I was greatly relieved to see them all none the worse for their experience. The first one out was the luckiest. He landed beside the local inn and was given half a tumbler of whisky for a start.” Sergeant-Pilot Irving spent a fortnight in bed at an R.A.F. hospital and then had three weeks’ sick leave. He had suffered injuries to his head and left shoulder as a result of making his jump so close to the ground. Later he received advice that he had become a member of the Caterpillar Club.