A 22-year-old Ottawa sergeant pilot brought a bombing training plane and its crew of
five down safely last night on a 600-foot fairway of a Bar Harbor, Me., golf course. The big twin-engine Anson came to a stop with its
propellers clipping grass on a high bunker.
Aboard were: Sergt. Pilot J.K. Ramsay, Sergt. D.L. Moher, Mimico, and Sergt. E.B. Hutchinson, Amherstberg, both
navigators-in-training; Aircraftman C.W. Sturgeon of Orilla and Sergt. G.E. Wright, R.A.F., England, observer. They were stationed at No.2
air navigation school, Pennfield Ridge, N.B.
Ice Formed on Wings
The plane was forced off its course by the first snowstorm of the season. Ice on the
plane wings forced the pilot to land. Using four flares which lit up the town half-a-mile away, the plane side-slipped between trees, 400 feet
apart, and bumped to a stop, missing two sand-traps.
Only Sergt. Wright was injured, a severe facial cut, said George Abbott, chief of police of Bar Harbor. With the others, he
was taken to Bar Harbor hospital for observation. Only damage to the plane was bent propeller tips.
"An amazing night," declared the chief. "A thrilling climax to a Shrine affair last night. It was about 11
p.m. The streets were crowded. Then we heard the plane circling for half-an-hour. We couldn't see it.
"Then the first flare went off. It lit up the sky. We figured the pilot was heading for the golf course, so everybody
jumped in their cars. Three more flares, then by the time we got there, the plane had landed.
"The pilot did a marvelous job." Abbott said. "A lot of people couldn't drive a car along that fairway, let
alone an airplane."
Wing Commander Miller, C.O., No.2 A.N.S., said the area is so small and full of pitfalls that it would be suicide to try to
fly it off, a fine tribute to Sergt. Ramsay's flying ability in bringing his plane down safely. The machine will be shipped back by road, he
said.
SOURCE: Newspaper Clipping from "The Clifford W. Sturgeon Collection".
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