Date:	Tuesday 10 April 1928
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.60X Cirrus II Moth
Owner/operator:	Hon. Lady Mary Bailey
Registration:	G-EBSF
MSN:	415
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Substantial
Location:	Tabora Airport, Tabora, Tanganyika -   Tanzania
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Croydon Airport, Croydon, Surrey (EGCR)
Destination airport:	Tabora Airport, Tabora, Tanzania (TBO/HTTB)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
c/no. 415 DH.60X Moth [Cirrus II #48]: registered G-EBSF [C of R 1417] 7.7.27 to Capt. Geoffrey de Havilland, Stag Lane, Edgware, Middlesex. C of A 1165 issued 22.7.27. Re-registered [C of R 1589] 6.3.28 to The Hon. Lady Mary Bailey, Stag Lane (exchanged with Moth G-EBPU c/no. 373). An auxiliary fuel tank was installed in the forward cockpit, giving the Moth an endurance of 10½ hours (making the aircraft a single seater)

Lady Bailey left Croydon 9.3.28 on solo flight to Capetown, South Africa; the aircraft was badly damaged in a crash landing Tabora, Tanganyika (now Tanzania) 10.4.28. According to one published source (see link #6):

"30 April 1928: The Honorable Lady Bailey arrived at Cape Town, South Africa, flying a de Havilland DH.60X Cirrus Moth, completing an 8,000-mile (12,875-kilometer) solo journey which had begun at Croydon Aerodrome, London, England on 9 March 1928. Lady Bailey described her flight as “uneventful,” but that was hardly the case.

The first stage of Lady Bailey’s flight involved crossing the English Channel. She encountered severe weather, gale force winds, followed by fog. Unable to see any landmarks, she landed twenty miles short of Paris, at Sacy-le-Petit, then continued to Le Bourget in a snowstorm.

The following day Lady Bailey and her Moth left Paris for Lyons, again in snowstorms. Her compass was malfunctioning, but she was able have it repaired when she arrived.

The next leg of the flight was another over-water flight, crossing the Gulf of Genoa enroute Pisa. She crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Tripoli, then turned eastward to Cairo. Once there, the Egyptian government refused to allow her to continue, fearing for her safety. Her airplane was seized and placed under armed guard. Not until a British lieutenant, who was flying to Cairo, agreed to escort her, was Lady Bailey allowed to continue. She took off and flew south along the Nile and arrived at Luxor on 28 March.

From there, Lady Bailey encountered sandstorms with high winds and reduced visibility and intense heat. On 10 April, as she landed at Tabora, Tanganyika (now known as Tanzania), at 4,000 feet (1,220 meters) above Sea Level, her DH.60 Moth flipped over. A wing spar was broken and the fuselage heavily damaged. G-EBSF was unable to continue the journey.

Sir Abe Bailey, Lady Bailey’s husband, purchased another DH.60 Moth which was used as a demonstrator by de Havilland’s agent in Johannesburg. It was flown to Tabora by Major Meintjes of the South African Air Force, arriving 19 April. Further arrangements were made with de Havilland to exchange this second airplane for a third, DH.60 G-EBTG, at Cape Town.

Lady Bailey departed Tabora on 21 April and continued to Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia, where she became ill. After four days there, she continued on to Livingstone, then Bulawayo, and finally, Cape Town. Her solo journey had taken 52 days.

Lady Bailey said that, “Anybody who can drive an auto could do it. My flight was long but uneventful, and not extraordinarily difficult. In fact, my only difficulty was when my machine was locked up in Cairo.”

After several months at Cape Town, Lady Bailey continued her round-trip solo flight by returning to London with her DH.60 Moth, G-EBTG. The return trip covered over 18,000 miles (28,970 kilometers). These were the longest solo flights and the longest flights by a woman up to that time".

Registration G-EBSF cancelled 2.1.29 as "crashed". Fuselage and spar broken; the wreckage was taken by rail to Pretoria, South Africa. Wreckage was presented to The Johannesburg Light Plane Club by Lady Bailey and was reportedly rebuilt in May 1928.

Re-registered in South Africa [possibly as G-UAAY?]. If G-UAAY was indeed the rebuilt G-EBSF, then its subsequent history was as follows:

G-UAAY: DH.60X registered May 1928 [possibly rebuilt ex-G-EBSF c/no 415]. Registered as ZS-AAY 18.2.30 to Strand Aviation Syndicate, Cape Town. Re-registered [C of R 31] 6.30 to Strand Aviation Co [Pty] Ltd, Cape Town. Destroyed by fire at Baragwanath 7.9.30. Registration cancelled as "destroyed" 30.9.30 (see separate entry).

Note: Lady Bailey’s solo flight was continued and completed with Moth G-UAAL bought by her husband, Abe Bailey, in Johannesburg, where it had previously been used as a demonstrator by DeHavilland South Africa agent, J.H. Veasey, and which was flown up from Pretoria by Major Meintjes of the SAAF. Lady Bailey then crashed Moth G-UAAL at Humansdorp 12.5.28 (see separate entry). She then hired Westland Widgeon G-UAAH to fly to Colesburg 5.28, where she took delivery of Moth G-EBTG, c/no 469, supplied by Commander Lionel Robinson, the DeHavilland agent in Kenya - and which had been flown to Johannesburg by Major Meintjes.

1. Townsville Daily Bulletin (Townsville, Qld.) Thursday 12 April 1928 Page 6 LADY BAILEY CRASHES: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/61030049
2. LADY MARY BAILEY CRASHES; Plane Is Reported Smashed in Tanganyika, Africa - She is Unhurt: New York Times 11 April 1928: https://www.nytimes.com/1928/04/11/archives/lady-mary-bailey-crashes-plane-is-reported-smashed-in-tanganyika.html
3. The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW) Friday 18 January 1929 Page 13 LADY BAILEY'S FLIGHT: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16524602
4. https://ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/dh60.pdf
5. https://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/page-great-bitain-registers-g-eb/g-eb-part-2?highlight=WyJnLWVic2YiXQ==
6. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-EBSF.pdf
7. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-de-havilland-dh60x-moth-tabora
8. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/p004.html
9. https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/the-honorable-dame-mary-bailey-cbe/
10. https://www.sps-aviation.com/story/?id=1890
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Bailey_%28aviator%29#Aviation
12. https://www.ctie.monash.edu/hargrave/bailey.html
13. https://trowelblazers.com/2015/06/26/lady-mary-bailey/
14. https://www.dib.ie/biography/bailey-mary-lady-bailey-nee-westenra-a10296
15. https://habitatsandheritage.org.uk/blog/hanworth-air-park-and-the-aviatrices/
16. https://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/pioneering-women/bailey-mary?highlight=WyJnLWVic2YiXQ==
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabora_Airport#History

Lady Mary Bailey in 1911, aged 21

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Sep-2008 01:00	ASN archive	Added
09-Dec-2011 13:46	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Date, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative]
12-Jan-2014 00:30	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
03-Sep-2017 17:42	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Source]
16-Nov-2023 12:16	TB	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative]
09-Dec-2023 08:50	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative, Category]
29-Mar-2024 10:08	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]