As streams of smoke poured from the engine of Alexander MacDonald's plane the World War II pilot from Sydney had only one decision to make, when to bail out.
It was late one evening in 1943 when the Sergeant from Waitara, in New South Wales, was flying above Sicily's south east and his engine began to splutter.
He was eight kilometres from the city of Modeca and his altitude of about 5000 feet was dropping fast.
At 1000 feet, Sergeant MacDonald decided to eject, parachuting to the ground in allied territory.
He would suffer only a bloody nose in the ordeal and become only the second Australian member of the Caterpillar Club – individuals who had bailed out and been saved by an Irvin parachute.
The Department of Air would share Sergeant MacDonald's remarkable story in a press release in August 1943. In it he would share intimate details behind his decision.
"The countryside was too hilly and too closely terraced for a crash landing, so I decided to jump at 1000 feet. I pushed the stick smartly forward and felt myself catapulted from the cockpit," he said in the statement recently released by the Australian National Archives.
"I pulled the rip cord and my parachute opened with a slight jerk. After a short fall I landed with a heavy bump in a sitting position.
"Sicilian peasants came from all directions and soon a crowd of over 200 had gathered. They were very friendly, expressing some concern, but my only injury was a bleeding nose."
Sergeant MacDonald said the locals led him to a dying donkey that had been hit by the aircraft, the only casualty in the crash.
When the Royal Australian Air Force pilot sought directions to the nearest road, he said the crowd all answered at once.
"Speaking with a volubility far beyond my recently acquired knowledge of Italian," he said in the statement.
"After some time six of them guided me to the roadway where a passing cyclist loaded my flying kit on his machine and walked with me to a military post seven miles away.
"On the way the cyclist took me to his home where he and his wife were hospitality itself. They served a welcome meal of spaghetti eggs and bread and showed a desire to help in every possible way."
Sergeant MacDonald spent the night at the military came and returned to his unit the next day.
He was one of the lucky ones, with other Australian pilots who have crashed behind enemy lines during WWII ending up as prisoners of war.
South Australian David Richards and Victorian Leslie Harvey both ended up POWs in Germany.
The Caterpillar Club was founded in 1922 by Leslie Irvin, a stuntman from California.
Mr Irvin also owned the Irvin Air Chute Company.
"Eligible members would receive a gold caterpillar pin and membership card from the Irvin Air Chute Company," ANA records said.
Contact reporter Kate Kachor at kkachor@nine.com.au
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