G L Rendell is partly right when he says that RAF pilots had seat-parachutes (Oxford Mail letters, April 20).

Certainly single-seat or training aircraft crew wore seat-parachutes, although some have now gone over to backpack parachutes.

In modern fighter aircraft the parachute is incorporated in the ejector-seat. However, in multi-crew bomber aircraft, such as the Lancaster, where the crew needed to be mobile, a chest-harness was worn with two large clips to which the actual parachute pack was hooked when there was a need to bail out.

If Mr Rendell consults RAF Bomber Command Losses Volume 4, by W R Chorley, he will see that Ken Knott (whom I knew well) was captain of 106 Squadron Lancaster ED372 when it was shot down over Hanover on September 27 1943.

I flew the RAF’s last Lancasters at the School of Maritime Reconnaissance in 1954, later converting to the Shackleton. It would be the correct procedure for the flight engineer to hand the pilot his chest-pack ‘chute and to assist him in clipping it on to the harness.

In Ken’s case, he had only fastened it to one clip when the aircraft blew up and he fell through the sky with the ‘chute only partially attached.

Bill Chorley’s book shows that ED372 was carrying two extra people on that fateful night, members of an RAF film unit.

Of the nine in the aircraft, six became prisoners of war, and three lost their lives and are buried in the War Graves cemetery at Hanover.

I hope this clarifies things for Mr Rendell.

Gordon Clack, Witney Road, Ducklington,