I WRITE in response to GL Rendell’s letter (Oxford Mail, April 20), concerning the issue of parachutes in Lancasters.

To the best of my knowledge, and I have this from Ken Knott himself, the one crew member of the Lancaster who didn’t wear a parachute was the pilot. This was because there wasn’t room between the seat back and the stick for other than the pilot’s body.

The emergency drill involved the flight engineer bringing the pilot’s parachute forward and helping the pilot into the ’chute harness.

On the sortie in question, the aeroplane had been holed by German artillery, and Ken gave the order to bale out. The flight engineer was in the process of clipping Ken’s parachute onto the D-rings, on the front of the pilot’s flying suit, when the aircraft was hit for the second time and the flight engineer disappeared, never to be seen again.

Ken came down with his parachute clipped on one D-ring and, against all odds, reached the ground safely, although he had lost his boots in the process.

Ken Knott was not a supernumerary – he was an experienced pilot in charge of a crew who already had several sorties to their name.

JULIA AND SCOTT RUSSELL daughter and son-in-law of Ken Knott, died March 30, 2011)Oxfordshire