One bleak night last December eight men flying north from Charleston, S. C. were strapped in their seats in an Eastern Air Lines transport, undisturbed by the rough air because their pilot was famed Henry Tindall ("Dick") Merrill, whose exploits, besides flying U. S. mail in a bathing suit (see cut, p. 74), have included twice hopping the Atlantic (TIME, Sept. 14, 1936). Suddenly a thudding shiver ran through the plane as a wingtip sliced a treetop. Recalled Passenger W. T. Critchfield: "It sounded at first like a heavy truck running on gravel...
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