I saved Philip from deadly helicopter plunge
PRINCE Philip escaped death in a helicopter crash thanks to a quick-thinking RAF pilot, it has emerged.
On November 19, 1958, five years after Queen Elizabeth II was crowned, the 37-yearold Duke of Edinburgh visited RAF North Coates, Lincolnshire, and left in a Sikorsky Whirlwind bound for RAF Patrington across the Humber estuary.
In the co-pilot’s chair was ace Australian pilot RAF Squadron Leader John M’Kenzie-Hall, who died last month aged 95. After take-off the officer noticed his side window vibrating and that the retaining wire had snapped. Describing the incident later, he said: “My immediate reaction was, ‘Oh God, the tail rotor might not benefit if this flies backwards.’
“Every helicopter pilot knows if the tail rotors blades are lost by impact the aircraft will lose directional flight and there is nothing the pilot can do to alleviate total disaster.
“As this discomfiting thought flashed through my mind I was looking down at the freezing grey waters of the Humber estuary. “Just as I tightened my fingers around the front edge the slipstream beat me to it and the window came so far off the runner that I could not slide it into its lock.
“I was just able to twist in my seat and grab hold of the back of the window as it broke free. The airflow acted like a parachute in reverse, and started to rotate with it and me. To prevent myself being dragged out of the aircraft I hooked my right foot under the instrument panel but… had to keep my leg painfully to its right.
“With my hands beginning to lose all feeling because of the cold, my thoughts came in flashes – ‘Can I hold on?’” The craft landed safely but his fingers were so numb that when he tried to climb down from the cockpit he missed his handhold and fell.
“As he [Philip] climbed out he gave my muddy uniform a rather quizzical look and asked, not unkindly, ‘What’s happened to you?’”
It took the Squadron leader seven months of intense physiotherapy to recover from his leg injury.
Last night a spokesman for Prince Philip said: “The Duke of Edinburgh was saddened to hear of the death of John M’Kenzie-Hall.”