Malachi Higgins – Landing through sheep

Tony Kearns
Interviewed for MAOHP - 24/10/2016
Reference Code: IE_MA_MAC_006_MAOHP_013_C
Location(s): Casement Aerodrome
Length: 2.56

Tony Kearns, a civilian historian to the Irish Air Corps has spent over fifty years researching and writing about the organisation. In this clip which comes from the second in a series of interviews undertaken by Michael J. Whelan, Tony speaks about Malachi Higgins who was a native of County Down who joined the Air Corps. Tony tells a story about Higgins while he was working at Rineanna with Fighter Squadron. Higgins was appointed to bring The Walrus for a service in Baldonnel. He explains how there were sheep on the field where he was supposed to land and that an initial fly through was supposed to clear the sheep to create space to land. Tony then relates how when Higgins was landing, he forgot to lower the undercarriage of the plane and recalls speaking to Higgins about it many years later. The Walrus was also known as a Submarine Walrus Single engine amphibian bi-plane, first flown in 1933

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