Date:	Sunday 1 March 1931
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.60G Gipsy Moth
Owner/operator:	George D Mallinson
Registration:	G-AACL
MSN:	887
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Aircraft missing
Location:	English Channel, off coast of Kent -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Ferry/positioning
Departure airport:	Le Bourget Airport, Paris, France (LBG/LFPB)
Destination airport:	Croydon Airport, Croydon, Surrey (EGCR)

Narrative:
c/no. 887 DH.60G [Gipsy I] Special Coupe version, registered G-AACL [C of R 1801] 7.11.28 to Alan S Butler, Stag Lane. Broke 100 km closed-circuit speed record 7.12.28, flown by Mr & Mrs Butler from Stag Lane to Twyford and back at average speed of 192.2 kph (119.8 mph). C of A 1939 issued 17.4.29. Took part in the 1929 Kings Cup Air Race Friday 5/Saturday 6 July, 1929. Heston (in fact, the official opening of Heston Air Park). Flown by Mrs. Lois Butler (race number '35'); finished 14th.

Re-registered [C of R 2485] 1.4.30 to George D. Mallinson, Brighouse, West Yorkshire. (Aircraft based at Sherburn-in-Elmet). Possibly sold [10.30] and based Hanworth

Missing in snowstorm over English Channel off the Kent coast 1.3.31 en-route Le Bourget to Croydon; pilot Charles Compere Job missing, presumed killed. Charles Compere Job had arrived in Paris on 28.2.31 to bring the aircraft back to England. No trace of the aircraft or its pilot was ever found. According to a couple of contemporary local newspaper reports, the first of which reported that Moth G-AACL had disappeared ("Portsmouth Evening News" - Wednesday 4 March 1931):

"'PLANE MYSTERY.
YOUNG SUSSEX PILOT MISSING.
CHANNEL SEARCH
Authorities Know Nothing of Departure
LONDON, Wednesday.
Somewhere between Le Bourget, the big Paris aerodrome and Croydon, London's air terminus, a two-seater black Gypsy Moth aeroplane and her pilot, Mr. Charles Job, of Hove, Sussex, have, it is feared, been lost.

On Sunday, the small machine which was flown from Lympne to Paris by Sir Anthony Lindsay-Hogg, set out for the return journey to England, piloted by Mr. Job, who is connected with a flying school in Surrey. The machine has not been heard of since.

"It is an absolute mystery," an official at Croydon Aerodrome to-day told a reporter. "As far as we can gather the Le Bourget authorities were not advised, as is usual by the pilot, that he was making the return journey on Sunday. Consequently, we were not in turn advised of his departure. We knew nothing of it until Monday, but it is now definitely established that the 'plane did actually take off. Every possible means of tracing the machine has been tried without success, even shipping has been advised to keep a sharp look-out for the 'plane. The vital 24 hours that were lost, however, make the task of searching for it extremely difficult. We know the ’plane must have met bad weather in the Channel on Sunday.”

A friend of Mr. Jobs at the school of flying to which he was attached, was still anxiously awaiting news to-day. "Mr. Job, who is about 21 years of age, is a very good pilot indeed and I cannot think what can have happened,” he said."

The second report indicates that the search for the Moth G-AACL and its pilot had been abandoned, with no trace of the pilot of aircraft found ("Lincolnshire Echo" - Wednesday 25 March 1931):

"MYSTERY OF THE AIR
YOUNG PILOT FEARED TO HAVE PERISHED
Airmen are still puzzled by the total absence of any clue to the whereabouts of Mr. Charles Job, the clever young pilot, of Hove, Sussex, who left Le Bourget Aerodrome on Sunday March 1 to fly to England and was never seen again. It was believed at the time that the two-seater Gypsy Moth in which Mr. Job was flying had met a snowstorm, but there was hope that although the plane might have been forced off its course, Mr. Job had made a safe emergency landing, perhaps in the Chantilly Forest neighbourhood of France.

Absence of any news of either the pilot or machine, however, has now led to the fear that both have been lost in the Channel, though no wreckage has been found."

The entry on the pilot's death certificate states "Died on or after 1.3.1931 at some place unknown". Registration cancelled 30.8.31 due to "destruction or permanent withdrawal from use of aircraft"

1. British Civil Aircraft Registers 1919-1999
Compiled by Michael Austen
Air Britain (Historians) Ltd 1999
ISBN 0 85130 281 5
2. Portsmouth Evening News - Wednesday 4 March 1931
3. Dundee Courier - Wednesday 4 March 1931
4. Daily Herald - Wednesday 4 March 1931
5. Lincolnshire Echo - Wednesday 25 March 1931
6. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AACL.pdf
7. https://ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/dh60.pdf
8. http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1934.htm
9. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-de-havilland-dh60g-gipsy-moth-channel-1-killed
10. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_G-A.html
11. https://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/gb-registers-g-aa/g-aa-part-1?highlight=WyJnLWFhY2wiXQ==
12. 1929 Kings Cup Air Race: https://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/pioneering-women/kings-cup-1929?highlight=WyJnLWFhY2wiXQ==
13. https://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=15581.0

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
23-Jan-2010 09:23	John Baker	Added
30-Oct-2012 08:46	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
28-Aug-2017 19:42	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source]
19-Apr-2018 14:48	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
01-Mar-2020 22:59	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
27-Nov-2023 16:59	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
05-Jan-2024 07:26	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]