ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 19383
This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information.
If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can submit corrected information.
| Date: | Sunday 9 September 1962 |
| Time: | |
| Type: | Taylorcraft Auster AOP.V |
| Owner/operator: | Anglian Air Charter Ltd |
| Registration: | G-AKOT |
| MSN: | 1469 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Elmhurst Close, Gorleston, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Non-Scheduled/charter/Air Taxi |
| Departure airport: | Caister-North Denes (EGSD) |
| Caister-North Denes (EGSD) | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Ex-RAF Auster AOP.Mk.V TJ433. Served with 657 Squadron; to G-AKOT 23/12/1947
Crashed at Gorleston,near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk on 6/6/1962. The aircraft spun in off a steep turn and crashed into a house, the pilot and all three passengers were killed. The accident occurred at Gorleston, Norfolk, and aircraft was on a pleasure flight. Departure airfield was not named in the AAIB accident card, but Anglian Air Charter Ltd were based at North Denes (EGSD)
The three passengers were from the Birmingham area, on holiday in Norfolk and were later interred in a cemetery at Whitton, Birmingham. Parts of the wreckage of G-AKOT were later used in the rebuild of Auster G-AOCP. Interestingly, it can be seen from the CAA registration document that the original owner after the RAF was J C Bamford, founder of JCB.
There was an article in the local newspaper (The Great Yarmouth Mercury) on 27 July 2012 which reported the following on the 50th anniversary of the crash:
"THANKFULLY, incidents of aircraft plunging to the ground are very few, and those coming down on a residential estate are even more scarce. But when the unthinkable happens, it stays in the memory forever, especially if there was loss of life.
Half a century ago an Auster taking summer holidaymakers on a pleasure flight from the Caister Road airfield crashed into the garden of a bungalow in Elmhurst Close, Gorleston, killing the pilot and his three passengers. I recalled the fatalities recently when looking at noteworthy events in 1962, and two Mercury readers got in touch with their recollections of that fateful afternoon.
One was ex-Yarmouthian Jack Stowers, an 87-year-old retired railwayman long resident in Lowestoft, who was one of the first on the scene. “My wife and I were visiting her mother at her home in Elmhurst Close when she said, ‘I’ve just seen a plane go past the window’, and we wondered what she was on about”, Mr Stowers tells me.
“A moment later, we heard a bang and immediately ran outside where we saw an overwrought elderly lady in the garden of a bungalow about 30 yards away and the wreckage of this plane. At first we worried about the possibility of the plane catching fire, but there was no fire. I could see the pilot and his front-seat passenger were dead.
“My wife went to fetch a policeman we had seen nearby before the crash. When he arrived, and we said we’d better try to get the two bodies out of the wreckage. Then the fire brigade and an ambulance came and set to work, and suddenly they said, ‘There’s two more bodies in here!’
Ex-Gorlestonian Mike King, also a Lowestoft resident and a regular contributor to this column, writes: “I remember it well.”
Mr King believes the first policeman to reach the scene was PC Calder, “a near-neighbour of mine who lived not far from the crash site.” He thinks Sgt Stanley Cox was also involved. “One of those two told me that when the police arrived, the lady occupant of the bungalow was in a state of total shock! Hardly surprising.”
That occupier was Miss Ethel Kidd who had been sitting quietly at home, watching television with her friend Miss Gladys Harvey, of Upper Cliff Road, when “suddenly there was a terrific noise like an explosion which rocked the bungalow. I rushed to the bedroom and saw the plane in the garden.”
The Auster had caught her roof as it crashed, and its tail snapped off when it struck the ground. The plane belonged to Anglian Air Charter which had been operating pleasure flights from Caister Road for 12 years.
Mr King adds: “Just two years before that crash my wife, her brother, father and a German pen-friend had a trip in one of the Austers. She recalls flying over Gorleston where she lived and over her school (where she was still a pupil for two more years) at Lynn Grove.”
From another regular correspondent, Peter Allard, of Mallard Way, Bradwell, comes information that the pilot had joined Anglia Air Charter only 12 days before the fatality. Investigators failed to find the exact cause of the crash, he says, but in aviation circles it was believed that the pilot banked the aircraft too much, causing it to stall and fall from the sky"
Registration G-AKOT cancelled by the CAA on 16/10/1962 as "destroyed"
Sources:
1. National Archives (PRO Kew) File BT 219/289: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C415061
2. https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/77170-9th-september-1962-a.html
3. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AKOT.pdf
4. https://www.austerclub.org/auster_emporium/auster_emporium.htm
5. http://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/news/memories-of-gorleston-auster-air-crash-tragedy-1-1462203
6. http://austerhg.org/gallery3/Auster-1243594292/Model_J/G-AKOT-Auster-5-North-Denes-1960-Pic-1
7. http://austerhg.org/gallery3/Auster-1243594292/Model_J/G-AKOT-Mk5-xTJ433-Pic-2
Images:
Media:
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 17-May-2008 11:10 | ASN archive | Added |
| 17-Jul-2009 22:44 | VHKDK | Updated |
| 01-Nov-2011 13:08 | mjkbrit | Updated [Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport] |
| 01-Dec-2012 03:23 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 23-Sep-2014 09:09 | alan champion | Updated [Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Photo, ] |
| 06-Dec-2014 02:32 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Total fatalities, Total occupants, Source, Narrative] |
| 30-May-2015 06:43 | Yarco982 | Updated [Location, Narrative] |
| 31-May-2015 07:19 | Yarco982 | Updated [Total fatalities, Total occupants, Source, Narrative] |
| 09-Apr-2019 18:46 | Anon. | Updated [Narrative] |
| 17-Dec-2019 22:03 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Location, Departure airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 16-Apr-2020 23:20 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by:
Quick Links:
| ASN Home | Send Correction / Feedback |
| FSF Home | Disclaimer | Copyright |
| Contact Us | Privacy Policy |
| Press / Media |
CONNECT WITH US:
©2024 Flight Safety Foundation