Aviation pioneer Lady Mary Heath became the first woman to parachute from a plane when she climbed out on a wing at 1,700ft before landing in the middle of a football match in the late 1920s. Born in 1896 as Sophie Pierce, she became Lady Mary Heath when she tied the knot with Lord Heath in London in 1927. Local historian John Cussen revealed her father, John Pierce, had murdered her mother, Kate Theresa Dooling. Up she went and she got out of the plane stood on the wing and jumped," said aviation historian Myra Gleeson. "Things really went horribly wrong and eventually she was upstairs in a bus in London and fell down the stairs and died," said historian John Cussen.

Source: Irish Independent February 02, 2020 06:56 UTC