"Flying until he was out of gas, John crashed."

[z7655431]

"Flying until he was out of gas, John crashed." (Treasury of English Grammar)

Is this sentence correct? What does HE refer to? There is no context, just the sentence itself. If HE refers to the plane, that would be really odd (because He should be John).
I think it should be revised as: Flying until the plane was out of gas, John crashed.
Am I right?

 

[emsr2d2]

"He" refers to John. It's a fairly common practice to put the pronoun before the name.

Knowing that she needed to look good for her interview, Sarah splashed out on a new trouser suit.
Running until she could run no more, Helen managed to break her half-marathon personal best.