AllMovie

A man is given an unusual look at a remarkable moment from his past in this short documentary from filmmaker William Lorton. During World War II, John Byth was a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force who flew a spy plane that sailed over enemy locations, taking aerial photographs of potential targets below. In the fall of 1944, Blyth was coming in for a landing at an airfield in England when the plane's landing gear failed and he was forced to attempt a controlled crash landing. James Savage, an Air Force flight surgeon, was on hand with a 16mm movie camera as Blyth brought in his plane, and captured the belly landing on film. In 2005, filmmaker Lorton tracked down Blyth and showed him the footage of his brush with death for the first time, and Spitfire 944 tells the story of that remarkable day and Blyth's memories of the event. Spitfire 944 was screened in competition at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, where it received an honorable mention in the awards for short films.