Aircraft accident at Speke c1935

Hi All

Apologies if I should have chosen a different forum for this! I am tying up some loose ends in my 20c genealogy. When I interviewed an elderly family member, who had previously lived in Frodsham, some years ago she mentioned an aircraft accident in which a relative of a friend of hers was killed or injured and I need to find out more about this person. Sadly the relative is now dead, so I cannot revisit this recollection.

She recalled that the young man, who she thought may have been in the air force at the time but for some reason was on leave, was killed when an aircraft hit a steeple while on approach to Speke airport. She thought the incident took place around 1935.

Liverpool archives and the RAF museum have no record of this, but acknowledge that their records are patchy. They recommend possibly looking at newspaper records, but before doing so I wondered if any elderly members may be able to recall this incident to help me narrow down the search. Please e-mail me if you can help.

Thanks

I came across something relating to;air crash,Speke airport and Liverpudlians. I do not wish to insult your elderly relative, but minds do play tricks, memory-wise. Then again there are names here that might help you dismiss this report...
[you may have seen this]

http://www.aircrashsites-scotland.co..._greenside.htm

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More general interest;airport, Chester and Liverpool...

http://www.chesterwalls.info/gallery/airport.html

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There is mention of an accident at Speke in 1936. See the paragraph that begins..."In September 1936 G-AEKL, having..." under the "Type history" heading...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Mew_Gull

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Last, but not least there is this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...United_Kingdom

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Alas the tales of loss at Speke airport do not stop there...

In Australia there is a small town, the town of Albury. In that small town there is a large shed and in that shed there is a plane, vintage 1934.
Let us go back, dear readers to that heady pre-war stroke post-war stroke time of plenty after the war to end all wars, to the roaring thirties.
1934, to be exact. In that year there was an international air race run between Britain (Croydon) and Australia (Melbourne) my but them were times of heightened excitement.

Picture the scene...flying in darkness somewhere over the vast expanse that is, and was even then, Australia. Lights are sighted on the ground, flashing lights, lights flashing in Morse code...A-L-B-U-R-Y [a quick look at the map tells the pilot that he is a little off course...]
One of the townspeople knowing of the race and hearing a plane circle overhead called on the Mayor, the Mayor called the Electric Generating company and had them flash the street lights off and on...the Mayor also called the radio station and had an emergency message sent out that brought car after car out to line-up along the local race track to show the pilot the best place to land...(phew...gets to you don't it?)

The whole story of the race is to be read on the site I link below. Lets get back now to accidents and Speke airport...

At the bottom of the page in the first paragraph under the heading, "...and of their pilots?" There is mention of yet another tragic event in the early years of the airport...

http://uiver.ruudbijlsma.nl/1934.htm

This 1934 one is pretty close in Crosby

http://www.baaa-acro.com/Fiches%20d%...934/G-EBKX.htm

...and is a civilian registered Avro 504.
At this time the RAF was still training in Avro 504's - before the Tiger Moths replaced them - so it is quite plausible that an off-duty RAF pilot could have been flying one - perhaps instructing.

An Avro 504 -

Attachment 20677

He could have been trying for a flight down the river under low clouds.

My second or third flying lesson at Speke in 1969 was similar trip down the river - missing the masts of the ships - under really low clouds with an exercise of flying in circles around the ships markers (Crosby beach?) at minimum altitude.

Thanks, Oudis & Az_gila for these useful ideas. I appreciate (from experience) that memories play tricks but usually there are some elements of truth in such remeniscences and I hope that the names of the individual(s) involved my help me to narrow this down in time.

The greenside reference is I think so far off the date and has none of the other features to make it unlikely to be the one. The first wikipedia reference unfortunately does not mention the pilot at the time of the taxiing accident but is one I will follow up. So also is the Uiver reference, but again this does not give any details of the RAF bomber involved - it may have been caused if the bomber itelf had been damaged on approach and coudl not manouvre properly. Again, This is another I will follow up.

The second wikipedia reference is also interesting - there seem to have been a lot of accidents involving Ronaldsy / speke but they all seem to have occured away from Speke. The old lady was unusually specific in her words "on approach to Speke".

The 1934 reference to G-EBKX is also very interesting, especially becasue of the experiences of Az_gila and is another I will follow up.

I am grateful to both of you for these ideas.

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Originally Posted by quakerdave

The second wikipedia reference is also interesting - there seem to have been a lot of accidents involving Ronaldsy / speke but they all seem to have occured away from Speke. The old lady was unusually specific in her words "on approach to Speke".
...

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Yes... I was also surprised at the amount of airline accidents that occured at Ronaldsway on the Isle of Man. The routes included Speke, but the accidents seemed to have all occured on the Isle.

Oudeis That story has me daring to press the link BUT cos I'm at work if it's a link company has banned then WARNING this is not permitted so I might have to wait until I get home tomorrow

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Woolyback

Oudeis That story has me daring to press the link BUT cos I'm at work if it's a link company has banned then WARNING this is not permitted so I might have to wait until I get home tomorrow

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That will larn you, Woolyback. Good luck from home.

It sounds as if this report of a plane hitting a steeple near Speke circa 1935 is faulty. Maybe it happened somewhere else at another time?

Chris

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Woolyback

Oudeis That story has me daring to press the link BUT cos I'm at work if it's a link company has banned then WARNING this is not permitted so I might have to wait until I get home tomorrow

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It, this site, is purely historical. The story does deserve your full attention though. I should have Googled that town earlier, but I shall do that very thing now. Happy reading.

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The town remembers...

http://www.alburycity.nsw.gov.au/www...iver-story.asp

HI Oudeis, I'm back I've read the story all the way though it was very exciting to such I forgot to do a patrol so for the next few hrs I will start every patrol 20 min's early to catch up Thank's again mate