Emergency landing

Heroes Remember

Emergency landing

Transcript

When we were flying out of, out of southern England, when we were briefed to go one night, they said, "When you come back, head the plane out over the sea and jump out because it looks like it's gonna be socked in when you get back." And none of us were too anxious to do that but so when we came back it was socked in alright. And the skipper said to me, "Do you think we can make it down on RDF?" And I said, "Well, I rather do that than jump out." And so we, we lined the plane up on the RDF and everybody stood up front to look for, except myself, who was on the RDF. And they were watching for anything that I might have missed. And, but we came down through the fog and right onto the runway and, so we saved a plane on our, and went into the briefing room and they tore strips off us like you wouldn't believe. They said, "You guys could've all lost your lives, you're too important." But we kinda looked at it the other way around, but, but that's the way it was.

Description

Mr. Wonnacott tells a story of landing the plan in dangerous circumstances caused by dense fog.

Eri (Bill) Wonnacott

Eri Wonnacott was born in Edmonton, Alberta on September 16, 1919. He was the oldest of 3 siblings; one sister and two brothers. His family lived through some very rough times during the Depression. He joined the RCAF air crew and became a navigator. He also spent some time as a training officer. After leaving the service, Mr. Wonnacott worked for Lever Brothers and later become a CEO of one of their companies.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 01:57
Person Interviewed:: Eri (Bill) Wonnacott
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Europe
Branch:: Air Force
Units/Ship:: Bomber Command
Occupation:: Navigator

Language selection

Emergency landing

Heroes Remember