The exit door of the Belfast was angled slightly towards the tail, which would enable a good photograph of the last parachutist to exit. I was sat on the port side of the aircraft adjacent to the door, strapped in with a baggage strap which rather resembled one of the older type of strap installed in cars in the 70's in which the buckle folded over the other strap end and clicked back into itself.

I had run the strap out to its full extension in order to be able to lean out of the aircraft as far as the tension of the strap would allow. I leaned against the strap and felt its comforting tug on me at the moment I took my photograph. At this point, I was at least three quarters of the way out of my seat, hanging more or less out of the aircraft. There was no chance of any further shots as the lads had all disappeared. I eased back properly into my seat and caught sight of the chap sitting next to the door on the other side of the aircraft. He seemed to have gone a strange colour and his eyes were like saucers. In addition, he was pointing frantically at my middle. I looked down and saw that the strap had come undone and the buckle had become entangled in my flying overalls between my body and the upper part of my leg as I was leaning out of the aircraft. The other end was lying on the floor, being blown around in the slipstream. I later learned from him that it must have been undone for some time and he had only become aware of the situation as I sat back into my seat.

The fact that the buckle had been caught up in my flying overalls was all that had prevented me joining the parachutists on their headlong plunge earthwards. The only difference was that my freefall would not have been arrested by parachute!

Just for once, my luck had held! I sat back in my seat in a mixture of shock and relief, thinking how much nicer it was to be inside the aircraft, rather than on my way down to join the public and to take a rather flat view of the rest of the afternoon's entertainment.

Could I have been caught by one of the other parachutists, hung on to him and got down safely? -- forget the films where the hero - minus parachute - holds on to someone else's parachute straps and they descend together. It simply does not happen. The G forces involved are very extreme indeed, and quite outside any human strength required to hold on. The only way this could work is if the poor unfortunate without a parachute but wearing a parachute harness could clip into the harness of the man with the parachute. This has only happened before during stunt filming where the man minus parachute was wearing a reserve - just in case the stunt did not work!
                                             Gavin Dix