[1] In 1934 Parmentier flew KLM's Douglas DC-2 with registration number PH-AJU Uiver ("Stork") in the MacRobertson Air Race from England to Australia.

With the only big passenger aircraft to compete in the nearly 20,000-kilometer air race, Parmentier achieved an honorable second place with his crew.

There he led the KLM crews who had fled to England with a number of DC-3s and one DC-2 and were deployed by BOAC on the Bristol-Lisbon scheduled service.

On April 19, 1943, the DC-3 Ibis (PH-ALI), piloted by Captain Parmentier, was shot at by six Luftwaffe fighters while en route from England to Lisbon.

[3] For his merits during the war, Parmentier was awarded several military awards, including his appointment on 18 March 1943 as Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his deployment and leadership of the KLM section within BOAC under very difficult circumstances and the Kite Cross (24 June 1943) for his performance during the attack on 19 April 1943.