OCR Text |
Show BIRDS STUCK I AND DEFEAT AIRPLANE American Aviator Describes Battle He had With Flock of Small Birds Which Brought Down His Plane i 3y Paul Drewstor, International News Scrv.ce Slc'f CorrcEpond:r.t i LONDON Sept 25. Probably the i most unusual story in the history of 'aviation, of how ho was attacked, ' brought down and narrowly escaped !o.ih jm tli? result cf an attack by a jllock of sraail birds while Hying In a liicont machine near El bu Kir, EJgypi I Sfl told by Lietitcnnut John Shnrpe iGrlfflthfl cf Los Angeles, who has Just roit'rr.rd from that place Griffiths is the only Amorlcari to hold a pornia-uent pornia-uent c rnn:i3ilo!i In the British royal' ! nir force "I v.aB flying lon.g as per.c-fully ns you pleure tn ihe airdrome of 70 Tr.ur.dron. of which I was a member, about 7! nV'ork in the morning, when I Erst noticed a fine!; of birds which resembled our black birds, flying over me. At iirst I paki scarcely any at tentlon to them, and when they flew in ftnt of m I merely banked and turned t.i ihc Icfi COULDN'T EVADG THEM. "However, they followed me. I thrn turned r-vin iii a lime I had a llttlol more dif.'iculiy in avoiding bitting them with the propollor of my ma-' shine After Boveml times I came toi the conclusion iiiat tbey were trying to daiiipsv the rjachinc. each lime they wj.hln striking distance of' the win,:?) lw.jy would dive and peck at Jheui. Of cjune, it was very difficult diffi-cult fcr mo Vi be'leve this, (or al ; though I have h-ai'd of eagles attack-ire attack-ire aviators before I never ht-ard of any Bmaller birds, or flocks of smaller; birds attempting to tight an airplane but as their activities lo tear holes in' the fabric of my p!.nc's wings con tinned, I crme to the conclusion tha' such was the etise. '1 tii en pn the machine through all the irich-: I kneW-, rolling, looping, diving, div-ing, doing Immolman turns, and diviLfc in turr. but the birds followed ine ai it seemed that their numbers increased. in-creased. FINALLY Cr?AGHC3. "Coming out of a dive the inevitable1 happened They flew straight inio ir.e pr. pellor of, my ranch, ne, breaking its blr.des. Thf next thing I knew the- j machine was doing a .'-pinning uor p i dive earthward With numerous dead1 birds killed by the propeller of my machine falling bc.-id' me, while the others ccntiuued to follow me down "Eventually I righted ihe machine and slarlcd to glide down, but l!ie; birds still followed and as the speed, of the plane had greatly diminished they wore able to light on it When' about 150 feet from the earth they Jammed my rudder control wires and the machine went down out of control and crashed I escaped with a bad : baking up and a few scratches. When Ihe machine landed the birds flew 1 away " Griffiths served with distinction, during the war, winning the disiiu , gulshed flying cross twice. The Iirst linn in . ranee tor attacking and bring log down seven tins singlehanded. and Ihe second lime for carrying eut forty low and dangerous patrols in North Russia and bringing down the only Red balloon on that front. He also won tue Russian order of oL ' Vladimir and St Anne. oo |