A very tragic loss...... 21 February 1945 Liberator VI KG925 358 Squadron This aircraft was returning from a sortie to Indo China and had been airborne for something over 14 hours. the pilot was aware of problems with the fuel transfer system and the aircraft's reserves of fuel were fairly small anyway, at the conclusion of so long a sortie. The pilot elected to continue the flight to his base and flew over a suitable airfield on which he could have made a precautionary landing. Whilst flying at 3000 feet the starboard engines both failed because of the fuel transfer problems and it was decided to abandon the aircraft. The air gunner could not locate his parachute and so the co-pilot agreed that he would jump with the air gunner holding on to his parachute webbing. This was done but the shock of the opening parachute caused the air gunner to lose his grip and he fell to his death. The aircraft subsequently crashed into the village of Tirpol, which is near Faridpur in Bengal, and killed 3 Indian civilians when it caught fire and destroyed their huts. Sadly, an examination of the wreckage subsequently, revealed the missing parachute. Sgt. John McLuskey 22. Air Gunner. CWGC - Casualty Details Source - 'Though Without Anger' - Colin Cummings
Tandem jumps.There were many instances of aircrew attempting this in emergency in Bomber Command.I can not recollect a successful one recorded.For a number it was the only option to take in an attempt to survive. I have often thought on seeing the loss of life from this attempt at escape from a doomed aircraft that the parachute harness should have been designed to carry two aircrew.I suppose there would be little feedback during wartime for this deficiency to have a solution applied.The problem was that shock loading of the parachute harness or clips would applied as soon as the parachute deployed,pushing the stress level of the material above its specification. At least this deficiency has been solved.I have seen civilian parachutists tandem jumping.However,recently, I learnt of a young man in the services, tandem jumping from 10000feet and deploying the parachute after 15 secs without any fear that the gear would not cope with the exercise.
