He nonetheless has a handwritten letter from Squadron Chief V Vesely, DFC, AFC, dated 24 March 1965, who was within the operations room through the incident which reads: “If I’ll take this chance, I wish to say how a lot all of us admired your calm effectivity and your most glorious R/T. Despite your nice difficulties, you behaved like a really skilled captain. I typically quote your emergency as probably the greatest carried out maydays we now have ever had.”
Dropping top quickly, he may see the inexperienced edged fields of North Wales coming starkly into view and he thought of his choices. The bottom group had been directing him in the direction of RAF Hawarden, a big airfield a long way from his place, however he was shedding distance quick and knew he couldn’t make it that far. As an alternative, he noticed a smaller airfield under which appeared to be empty.
Utilizing a replica ebook sample for a pressured touchdown, he manually lowered the undercarriage after which manoeuvred the aircraft into a good arc, shedding top on a regular basis in order that he was 5,000ft into the flip and three,000ft as he straightened out. At simply 800ft, his coronary heart dropped as a result of he noticed energy cables stretched throughout the unused runway.
At this level, many pilots would have opted to make use of the ejector seat and take their possibilities exterior the cockpit, however Christie-Miller nonetheless thought he may land the plane.
“I took a deep breath and simply dropped sufficient top to fly beneath the wires. The following second, at a velocity of round 180 knots, his wheels touched the runway solely 100 yards from the brink and he launched the drag-chute, a form of braking parachute. It was a textbook touchdown however dangerous luck intervened once more. “I used to be braking as exhausting as I may, however the crosswind prompted the plane to veer throughout the runway.
“The precise wing ploughed into some telegraph poles alongside the facet of the runway and the aircraft hit an unused static water tank earlier than ploughing nostril down into the turf. I don’t keep in mind a lot after that,” he recollects.
In truth, the impression had virtually severed his left leg and badly injured his proper, which had been each jammed into the bottom together with the skinny metallic fuselage.