MAN’S PARACHUTE WOULD NOT OPEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19060, 3 May 1930, Page 29 (Supplement)

MAN’S PARACHUTE WOULD NOT OPEN.

JAMMED CONTROL WAS CAUSE OF FATALITY. (Special to the “ Star.”) LONDON, March 16. The drama of an attempt to tell an airman in flight how to free a jammed control was described at the inquest at Kenley, Surrey, on Pilot-Sergeant Cecil Arthur Alfred Fell, R.A.F., who was killed when he jumped from his machine wearing a parachute which did not open. Flight-Lieutenant Charles F. Trench, who said that he noticed Sergeant Fell flying around and around, continued: “ I saw that something was jamming Ills control in the back seat, and I imagined the parachute or something was loose. I flew up alongside him and made signs to him to perform certain evolutions, which would drop the parachute out of the back seat. He understood what I told him to do, and tried to loop, but did not succeed. Lieutenant Trench said he flew in front of Sergeant Fell and tried to make him do other evolutions, but he could not do them. He went on: Finally he made a sign to me that he was going to jump. I indicated to him to climb with me and he followed me to a height of about 6000 ft. I flew towards Epsom Downs, thinking that would be the best place for a jump. “Suddenly he left me and dived in perfect control about 4000 ft. Then his machine went out of control. I saw Fell leave his machine with his parachute, but first I saw his parachute come out of the back of the machine.” Mr Nightingale, the Coroner: Did Fell’s parachute act?—No, nothing opened. Lieutenant Trench said that he afterwards examined the parachute and found that Fell had not pulled the cord. Unless the cord was pulled the parachute would not open. Mr Nightingale: Can you suggest how the parachute became loose?—I am afraid I cannot. The experts have been down and tried to pull the parachute out of the seat in different ways, but did not succeed. Lieutenant Trench, in answer to a juryman, said that a parachute was fastened by four straps to the seat as tightly as possible. Squadron-Leader B. E. Baker said that the parachute was strapped in in accordance with normal procedure. Mr Nightingale: Since it became loose the normal procedure must be bad. Dr W. Stalker stated that Fell had broken his back and fractured his skull in falling. “I think that the long mental strain and then the sudden loss of control of his machine,” he said, “caused Fell to lose control of his mental faculties. That would account for his not pulling the cord of the parachute. His mind had become a blank under the long strain.” The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.