Why does Farrier not choose another escape route?

Why does Farrier not choose another escape route? - Back view of unrecognizable hikers with trekking poles traveling in green hilly valley

After Farrier saves the lives of many on the sea coast in Dunkirk, and his fuel is off, he lands smoothly in the enemy zone and puts the plane on fire and gets himself captured.

Why did he hesitate to open the parachute and escape?



Best Answer

I'm not a pilot but from my readings they'd much rather make a safe landing than jump from a plane they can land even if there was the possibility of capture.

Jumping/parachuting from a fighter was not an easy process during WW2. Firstly, you had to be a lot higher and climb out of the aircraft while still flying level (which is hard to do since there was no automatic pilot) nor were their ejector seats in early WW2.

In general, it involved (if my reading is correct), for the most part, inverting the aircraft and falling out.

Here's a reddit thread comment

So, your cockpit is not on fire, you have a few seconds to spare, you can act methodically instead of frantically.

First of all, jettison the canopy. Don't just open it, because due to some odd factors it might close back again. We have time to spare, but no time to lose.

You also need to unbuckle your seat-belts and don't forget to detach your radio cable and oxygen supply. If you forget, it might prevent you from leaving the aircraft. Again, no time to lose. Now, do you have aileron authority? You do? Great, perform a half barrel roll. Now you will simply fall out of the cockpit, also minimizing the risk of hitting the vertical or horizontal stabilizer (though the risk will always be there, this is exactly what killed Hans Joachim Marseille, in my opinion the best fighter pilot of WW2).

If you cannot roll the plane on its back, you have to climb out of the cockpit onto the wing and just jump. Be careful as the air striking your body will try to force you back into the cockpit. If one wing is angled downward, you can attempt to slide down on it just a little bit to avoid the stabilizers.

Now, you're in the air. When do you open the chute? It depends. You might want to do it immediately, but not necessarily. Say we're in the Battle of Britain. If you're an Allied pilot and there are Luftwaffe planes near, wait as long as you can since they might attempt to shoot you out of the sky. Also, if you're near the Channel and the wind is blowing towards it, wait as long as you can so as not to be blown over the water. And if you're falling from very high up, you might want to wait a bit so as not to die of boredom during the long descent.

Gliding an aircraft, out of fuel, would have been much safer.

Even if he did jump..where's he going go? He's essentially alone in occupied France...he's going get captured anyway.




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What happened to Farrier after Dunkirk?

Farrier's precise fate is left to our imaginations, but we know from real-life accounts that, while some 340,000 British and French troops were rescued during the \u201cMiracle of Dunkirk\u201d, some 40,000 were left behind.

Why did Farrier set his plane on fire?

To prevent the plane being used to attack England (no one would shoot a friendly plane) It's an act of defiance toward the Germans (you can have me, but not my plane) Farriers (and any pilots) relationship with his plane is personal - a bond of trust and loyalty that can't be let go like a worn sock...

What happens to Farrier when he lands?

After he landed he must have noticed that Germans where near or seen them, accepted his fate and quickly burned the plane. And yet he turned his magic plane and was able to shoot down a German fighter, while still managing to glide from daylight to night!

Did a Spitfire land on Dunkirk beach?

Possible or poppycock? "Spitfires did actually land on the beaches of Normandy during the war and I flew and landed the Spitfire you see in the movie on the closest beach to the village of Dunkirk. We had several practice approaches, but I only landed once.



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More answers regarding why does Farrier not choose another escape route?

Answer 2

He once thought about opening his parachute. But on a second thought, he did not want the Allied to see the aircraft go down, which would affect the Allied's spirit negatively. Then he decided to sacrifice himself.

Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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