Upside Down in a Violent Storm

Heroes Remember

Upside Down in a Violent Storm

Transcript

The weather was very bad and we’d gone through the south. We were coming back out over the Alps when we were hit by a terrible thunderstorm. We ran into something and the Halifax literally went up on its’ back and I know that because all the dirt and stuff on the floor of the aircraft ended up on the top of the turret so Vic, we fell and finally Vic got it all straightened out. We never spoke about it because you know the dirt was in my turret and everything was in a jumble, the parachutes had all disappeared somewhere in the aircraft. That was a frightening moment when it was almost upside down in the violent storm but there again, a good pilot got us out of that. Even Bill and I never talked about it until many years later we went deer hunting one time in the ‘50s and we both could laugh about it then, you know, but that was ten years later.

Description

Severe weather causes the Halifax to flip causing the turret to fill with debris.

Stan Heather

Stanley (Stan) Heather was born in Toronto, Ontario, on June 5, 1923. He began his military service on February 27, 1941, at the Galt Aircraft School as an airframe mechanic trainee and then joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at the manning depot in Toronto as an AC2 (Aircraftman, 2nd class) mechanic in July of that same year. He flew as an air gunner with Royal Air Force 78 Squadron at Breighton, Yorkshire, England. At the end of the war, he had achieved the rank of flying officer, and returned to Toronto to pursue his education in Accounting while working for the Dominion Bank. He worked for the Chrysler Corporation as an accountant, for Dale Carnegie Courses as a sponsor in the West Indies (for 15 years), and for the Mississauga Board of Trade as its general manager. In 1985, he co-founded Heather Child Care Supplies Ltd. with his wife, Hassina which they still operate together. Mr. Heather is a proud father of five, grandfather and great-grandfather.

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