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Show I .V 'Wmmmi - . . : '' . v;.::; lilillli Corporal STERLING ISOM Corporal Sterling Isom 'Blown Out of Plane' When Fortress Breaks Up Being "blown out" of an airplane at an altitude of approximately 12,000 feet was the unique experience ex-perience of Corporal Sterling Isom of Hurricane, who was one of the nine Army airmen from the Fifth air base at Salt Lake City, who cheated death when the flying fortress in which they were riding broke up and fell apart in a storm over California's Sierra-Nevada mountains Sunday about noon. Nine Men Aboard Of the nine men in the plane, only the pilot, Lieut. L. M. H. Walker of Salt Lake City, died in the crash. His body was found crushed in the hull from which he had been unable to escape. Only one other member of the crew was injured, and he, slightly. Corporal Isom described the breaking up of the plane as follows: fol-lows: , "We were flying at 12,000 feet," (Continued on page eight) Sterling Isom Story (Continued from first page) he told the Associated Press, "and going about 200 miles an hour, when the plane snapped in two after the downdraft drop. "The ship literally fell apart when it was sucked down and the tail section came off. I was thrown through the gunner's turret tur-ret in the radio compartment. I crashed right through the turret glass," he continued. "I pulled the ripcord on my parachute and saw Private Stoo-key Stoo-key also clear. He had been blown out through the hole left when the tail ripped off." Corporal Isom said the last he saw of the plane "it was breaking up and disappearing. It looked like it would have been very difficult dif-ficult for any of the other men to get out." |