The Beginning of a Rather Long Short Snorter

(The Continuation of Excerpts of Captain Charles Estes's Memoirs)

"I recall we took off from Gander Field at twelve o'clock
at night, and just after we had taken off we noticed that a plane
that was flying in the same group that we were flying to the
Azores had crashed. And I can only assume that in the
black of night he forgot to turn off his landing lights,
and they were piercing out through the darkness,
and it made him feel like he was maintaining a straight
and level position where really he had gone into a turn
and lost altitude and his wing tip hit the ground and crashed.


Now we never did find out exactly what happened but
we do know that all of the men and all the people on the
crew died.


I'm just thankful that my instructor had warned me
about night flying and told me that I should never
leave my landing lights on once I had left the ground."

(To be Continued.)