THE “MAD MAJOR.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 296, 14 December 1931, Page 5

THE “MAD MAJOR.”

Prosecution Follows Flight Under Tower Bridge. AVIATOR WAS DESPERATE. (Special to the “ Star.") LONDON, October 29. Known in the war as the “ Mad Major,” Major Christopher Draper, of Hamilton Gardens, London, pleaded guilty at the Guildhall Police Court to two charges in connection with his flight in a monoplane between the towers of Tower Bridge. The charges were of flying in a manner to cause unnecessary danger to persons or property on land and water, and acting as a pilot without holding a license. He was bound over for twelve months. The charges were the first of the kind to be brought in the City of London. Police Constable Simmonds said that Major Draper suddenly swooped in his machine and passed between the high level of Tower Bridge and the bastilles. The high level was 110 ft and the height of the aeroplane was about 70ft over the road. “ This caused considerable alarm to the pedestrians and drivers of vehicles on the bridge at the time,” he said. Pedestrians Scared. “ The machine again flew through the bridge at a much lower altitude, and pedestrians scattered left and right, and drivers of vehicles crouched. At this time the bridge was about to be cleared to allow a ship to pass, and had Major Draper been a minute later there would have been a serious accident. The bastilles of the bridge were about to rise, and had they gone up he could not have avoided striking the bridge and possibly the ship.” The constable added that when he interviewed Major Draper he said: “I hired the machine for £5 to do a demonstration flight to test a camera. My subsequent manoeuvre was purely spontaneous. My passenger and the aircraft company knew nothing of my actions before the flight.” When asked to produce his pilot’s certificate, he replied; “I have not flown for the last nine years, and I have no license.” When asked if he had anything to say to the Court, Major Draper, reading from a typewritten sheet of paper, said; “ I am not legally represented. I cannot afford to be. I had to borrow the £5 to hire the machine for this flight. I was desperate at the time, had no income of any sort.” He added that he was “ terribly anxious” for the Alderman (Sir Stephen Killik) to know that his flight was not put up as a stunt backed byanyone, nor did he do it for “ cheap notoriety.” Taunting Remarks. “ I did it to prove to the aeronautical world and to satisfy myself that in spite of the lapse of ten years, I am still the highly skilled specialist I used •U-v i-.*> »*

1 The major said that he had been on the stage, and his friends had made taunting remarks that he had “ become soft.” “ Somewhat foolishly, I allowed this to pique me and I made a bold effort to get back my old job. But nothing has hurt me more than tc be told that this was the mad, hare-brained stunt of a youngster. I took my life in my hands to prove that I could do it, and I had no other motive.” He said he was an old Air Force pilot, and took his certificate in 1913. He “ commanded one of the most famous crack flight squadrons in France .and was awarded the D.F.C., the Croix de Guerre, and was mentioned in despatches.” He pleaded that because of his financial position a fine would inevitably' re- ’ suit in imprisonment as he had no one he felt he could go to to help him out. Sir Stephen Killik, in binding the ’ major over, said that he had at first intended to fine him £IOO.