ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 24970
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: | Thursday 18 October 1934 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: |  de Havilland DH.60 Moth |
| Owner/operator: | C.G.M Alington, G.E Alington & W. J. Alington |
| Registration: | G-EBWA |
| MSN: | 539 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Burbage Edge near Buxton, Derbyshire -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Broxbourne, Nazeing, Essex |
| Stanley Park, Blackpool, Lancashire |
DH.60X Moth [Cirrus II]; registered G-EBWA [C of R 1558] 23.1.28 to Capt. O.S. Baker (nominee on behalf of Hon A. E. Guinness). Probably not delivered. Re-registered [C of R 1632] 11.5.28 to Kenneth George Murray, Edinburgh [but based at Brooklands, Surrey!]. C of A 1439 issued 15.6.28. Flown by owner to Nairobi, departing Brooklands 5.4.29.
Registered [C of R 2543] 30.4.30 to The Brooklands School of Flying Ltd, Brooklands. Delivered 30.6.30 and re-registered [C of R 2959] 31.12.30 to Charles F.P. Lowe, Barton, Lancashire. Operated by Northern Air Lines School of Flying, Barton with effect from 2.6.31; reformed as Manchester Aero Club [early 1932].
Re-registered [C of R 3751] 31.5.32 to Harold E Bradley, Barton. Registered [C of R 4112] 30.12.32 to Northern Air Lines [Manchester] Ltd, Barton. Re-registered [C of R 4519] 27.5.33 to The Hon Brian Lewis of Brian Lewis & Co Ltd, Heston. Sold 30.6.33 and re-registered [C of R 4635] 16.8.33 to Alexander Collinge, Barton. Re-registered [C of R 5104] 25.5.34 to Cyril Geoffrey Marmaduke Alington, Gladys Evelyn Alington, & William James Alington, Binbrook, Lincolnshire [but probably based at Broxbourne, Nazeing, Essex, where W. J. Alington was an instructor].
Written off (damaged beyond economic repair) when crashed near Buxton, Derbyshire 11.10.34. The two men on board had taken off from Broxbourne, Nazeing, Essex for Stanley Park, Blackpool, Lancashire, in good weather conditions and proceeded northwest across England. As they reached the Pennines, they reported encountering thick mist and a strong 60 mph head wind. The aircraft became difficult to control so the pilot decided to turn back and potentially force land the aircraft. Before dropping clear of the low cloud, the aircraft struck rising ground on Burbage Edge. The aircraft turned over trapping the pair for about half an hour before they both managed to escape the wreck and walked to an AA box near the Cat & Fiddle public house.
The pilot was William James Alington (part owner of the aircraft, and an instructor at the Herts & Essex Aero Club) and the passenger was a Mr. H. Ellis. The following is a transcript of a newspaper article from the Buxton Herald, Thursday, October 18th 1934
"Aeroplane Crash on Axe Edge
Into the Ground at 120 m.p.h.
Two men had a miraculous escape from death on Thursday when the aeroplane in which they were travelling crashed on Axe Edge at a speed of nearly 120 m.p.h. Both men were from the Broxbourne Aerodrome, Essex, where the pilot of the machine is attached to the staff. He was Mr. W. J. Allington (28), while the passenger who also holds a pilot’s ticket was Mr. H. Ellis (25). The machine was a private one and belonged to Mr. Allington, who was travelling with his companion to Stanley Park Aerodrome, Blackpool, on a journey to Belfast.
The machine crashed on the moors near the Half Way House, on the Macclesfield Old Road.
Describing their experience to a Buxton Herald reporter on Thursday evening, Mr. Allington said: “When we left Essex the weather conditions were perfect. It couldn’t have been better and everything went swimmingly until we got over the hills behind Buxton, where we ran into a thick mist.
There was a 60 m.p.h. gale blowing and it was almost impossible to manoeuvre the plane at all. There was hardly any response from the controls. We were unable to see hardly a foot in front of us and decided to turn back. But the mist had closed in round us and we had no idea where we were.
We had just come to the decision that a forced landing was the best thing we could do and were searching for a suitable spot through the mist when a terrific gust of wind seemed to hit the plane and hurl it to the ground. I did what I could to make her land flat but there was a speed of over 60 m.p.h. registered on the speedometer and a sixty- or seventy-mile gale behind us and I didn’t have much chance.
We hit a boulder or something and the machine overturned. I think that we must have both been knocked out by the impact for neither of us remember anything about what happened for twenty minutes or so, although I can recollect faintly wondering why the petrol, which was leaking over everything, did not catch fire.
The machine was a total wreck and it took us nearly half an hour to free ourselves from the remains of the cockpits. We had to cut the side before we could get out.
We sorted ourselves out and found that we were more or less intact, why I don’t know, except for superficial scratches and bruises. We knocked at the door of one or two houses, but they were all empty, and eventually found ourselves near an A.A. box near the Cat and Fiddle. There was and A.A. scout there and he rang up a garage in the town for a car…” Here Mr. Ellis intervened, “I don’t think that he knew where we had come from at first. Even when we explained to him what had happened, he seemed a little bewildered.
We have been very unlucky about this journey. We set off a week or two ago, but the weather conditions were so bad that we had to turn back. We have been up here before, but we always skirted these hills and travelled over Sheffield.
We passed over a mining town on the way up and I thought, with the memory of the recent disaster in my mind, that those fellows had no chance of getting to the surface if anything happened. It never struck me what a dashed good chance we had. The ironical part about it is too, that we went to your Opera House to-night and saw a film on what not to do when flying a plane.”
“Is the machine badly damaged?” the Buxton Herald reporter enquired.
“Well,” said Mr. Allington, “whether it is salvable or not rests with the insurance company. But to give you a rough idea of what it is like I will mention that the instrument panel from the pilot’s cockpit is in the passenger’s seat, the machine is on its back, and its pieces are spread over the moor.”
Both men paid a stirring tribute to the Buxton and District Hospital, where they were taken for attention, and urged the Buxton Herald to publish how grateful they were for the splendid way in which they had been treated.
“I have never seen anything like it,” said Mr. Ellis. “Everyone was simply wonderful. They dried our clothes for us, made us tea, and the matron even came round to the hotel afterwards to see how we were getting along. I doubt whether we could have been treated better anywhere in the country. No London hospital would have looked after us like yours did.”
The men made their headquarters at the Eagle Hotel and left Buxton for London on Friday morning. The Machine was a D.H. Moth".
Registration cancelled 31.10.34 due to "destruction or permanent withdrawal from use of aircraft"
Burbage Edge is a gritstone escarpment overlooking the Burbage district of Buxton in Derbyshire, in the Peak District. The hill's summit (marked by a trig pillar) is 500 metres (1,600 ft) above sea level.
Sources:
1. Buxton Herald, Thursday, October 18th 1934
2. http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/crash_sites/peak-district/de-havilland-dh60x-g-ebwa-burbage-edge/
3. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_G-E4.html
4. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-de-havilland-dh60x-moth-burbage-edge
5. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/p005.html
6. https://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/page-great-bitain-registers-g-eb/g-eb-part-2?highlight=WyJnLWVid2EiXQ==
7. http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/HistoricalMaterial/G-EBWA.pdf
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burbage_Edge
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 27-Sep-2008 01:00 | ASN archive | Added |
| 06-Jan-2014 23:15 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
| 17-Jan-2014 18:33 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
| 07-Nov-2023 08:12 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Operator, Source, Narrative, Category] |
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