AIRMAN’S STORY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19865, 13 June 1927, Page 11

AIRMAN’S STORY

A PARACHUTE JUMP BURSTING FLAMES WARLINGHAM, Surrey, April 26. A thrilling description of his six thousand feet leap for life from a fallin;, aeroplane was told by Flight-Lieu. d’Arcy Greig, whose machine went ou of control 12,000 feet above earth an. crashed, burst into flames, and was du stroyed within thirty seconds near War lingham last month. The aeroplane struck the ground at Riddlesdown, near Kenley. Flight-Lieutenant Greig had been in the air about half an hour carrying ou special tests for the Air Ministry. Onl\ his quick wit and the parachute oi. which he staked his life saved him from the same fate as his machine. Violent Explosion.

When the aeroplane, loaded with mon. than fifty gabions of petrol and thou sands of rouuds of ammunition for bei guns, crashed, there was a violent ex plosion and a vivid sheet of flame. The officer seemed but little the worse for it. Occasionally there was a faint stutter to show what he had be.’ll through, but his hands were steady, anc there was no trace of nerve storm as he described the 6,000-feet fall. “It was my first experience of a parachute descent,” he said. “I never want to do it again, but, thank God. the parachute finally opened, and 1 have everlasting faith in its efficiency. “I had the most dreadful sensation as I fell. I turned over and over and over, and for hundreds of feet —heaven knows how many—l was too giddy even to form any kind of a judgment. 1 could see the bundle of the unopened parachute. I thought it was never going to open. I just tumbled like a feather, with tho gusty wind blowing me about. “Then I realised that it was !• who had made tho mistake; I pulled the rip cord, as, of course, 1 should have done earlier. I suppose I can be excused, as it was my first experience of a parachute, for not pulling the cord as so"U as I was clear of the machine. “This is what happened: I put the machine I was driving into a spin—l can’t tell you exactly what tests 1 had taken her up for, because that is nn official matter. She answered perfectly, but when I tried to drag her out something went wrong. I was up 12,00 C feet then. My altimeter was gradually dropping, and I tried to pull the machine out. “The earth was getting nearer, 1 could see. Then I realised that, what ever had happened, it would not bo al tered. I thought quickly, and, jumping to my feet,/left the machine to herself. I put one leg over the cockpit side, and as I was about to step off the wing caught me and I was flung clear.

Spinning to Earth. “Even as I was falling—turning over and over—l could see the machine spin ' ning to earth all the time upside down. It is almost impossible to describe my feelings, and yet somehow I had leisur;? to think whether I had done right in leaving the ‘ ’bus’ or whether I should have stayed with her. “It suddenly occurred to me that she might fall on houses which were not far away from where I had been flying during the day. 1 could see, however, once the parachute opened, that it would fall in an open field. “As a matter of fact, the aeroplane nearly, hit a ploughman as she spun down to earth, and I am afraid it frightened him so that it will be some time before he loses his fear of aeroplanes. “When it was all over I reported the accident as I had nothing much else to do. Between you and me I would have liked a souvenir of that experience. “Feeling fit? Well, fairly fit.” Flight-Lieutenant Greig landed in a field near the village of Sickleshome. He narrowly missed being injured by some trees, but was carried clear. The first person to see him after he had made his descent was a nine-year-old girl named Betty Knight. She said to me: “I saw the mar. coming along the road carrying ‘sheets,’ and he said, ‘Where’s tho big house?’ and I showed him the way to Fairchild.’ ’