LONDON, Dee, 11, Reuter: Two prisoners whisked to freedom from a maximum security jail by a helicopter evaded police dragnet in Central England on Friday.
Convicted murderer Sydney Drapper and John Kendal, serving. eight years for burglary and conspiracy, scrambled aboard a hijacked helicopter as it touched down on the sports field of Gartree Prison in the county of Leicesteshire.
Home Secretary Douglas Hurd ordered an inquiry into Thursday’s escape, the first time the James Bond style method has been used for a jail breakout in Britain.
A senior officer warned that the pair was extremely dangerous and probably armed.
Hundreds of police officers took part in the hunt. Police throughout Britain have been alert and photographs of the two prisoners circulated.
The helicopter was hijacked from a nearby airport by a man claiming to want to photograph ka local golf course and was flown to Gartree where inmates were exercising on the field.
The two escapees and their accomplice left the pilot handcuffed to the helicopter when they abandoned it in a nearby village and made off in a stolen car.
They later forced a woman motorist off the road and) seized her car. She was not injured,
Gartree is one of the eight maximum security prisons in Britain and the scene of several incidents Of Violence over the past few years.
Draper was jailed for life in 1974 for the murder of a rail employee during a robbery the previous year and was serving a minimum sentence of 25 years.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 18, 1987
