RAF veteran defies health and safety to take to the skies

RAF veteran defies health and safety to take to the skies A 91-year-old former RAF pilot, who was told it was too dangerous to sit in the cockpit of a Spitfire, has taken off once more, flying in the face of health and safety rules.

Eric Carter, the last surviving member of Force Benedict, a secret mission to protect the northern Russian port of Murmansk, flew Spitfires during the Second World War.

But he was shot down earlier this year when he wanted to sit in the cockpit of the plane at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery near Stoke-on-Trent.

Officials at the museum told him it would be a health and safety risk because the Spitfire did not have a proper seat.

However, a flying enthusiast came forward to help get Mr Carter back behind the controls of the iconic aircraft.

Matt Jones, of the Boultbee Flight Academy, arranged for him to fly over Goodwood Aerodrome in West Sussex, the Daily Mail reported.

From an article in 2009:

Worcestershire News

Stalin’s forgotten British lifesavers

Jun 24 2009 by Andy Richards, Birmingham Mail

Eric Carter

ERIC Carter was a 21-year-old fighter pilot when he was piled onto a train in Hull with the rest of 81 Squadron and taken to Liverpool in 1941.

There, he was ushered onto a ship and set sail for the open seas, none the wiser about his destination. Rumours in the squadron suggested they might be heading for Africa, but they soon found out they would be ditching their warm-weather gear for good.

Eric was part of Force Benedict, a clandestine operation to save the Russian port of Murmansk as the Nazi war machine marched on Moscow. The operation was top-secret because Stalin did not want the world to know his regime needed British assistance.

Eric, aged 89, now lives in Chaddesley Corbett in Worcestershire. Perhaps the last surviving member of the secret squadron who helped save Russia from defeat by Nazi Germany, his story may never have been revealed had it not been for a chance discovery.

The discovery of a medal awarded to Force Benedict’s wing commander, Group Captain Henry Neville Gynes Ramsbottom-Isherwood, lifted the lid on the squadron’s heroics.

He was one of only four non-Russians given the nation’s highest military award, the Order of Lenin, which was sold by Sothebys this week for £46,000.

Eric said: “Stalin did not want his people to know that he had asked the West for help and we were threatened with a court martial if we said anything. It was a very well-kept secret, but I was young and I must have been mad. Perhaps we were just a tougher generation.

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