Date & Time:
Feb 2, 1937
Type of aircraft:
De Havilland DH.90 Dragonfly
Operator:
Registration:
G-AEHC
Flight Phase:
Flight
Flight Type:
Cargo
Survivors:
No
Site:
Mountains
Schedule:
Glasgow – Liverpool
MSN:
7514
YOM:
1936
Country:
United Kingdom
Region:
Europe
Crew on board:
2
Crew fatalities:
2
Pax on board:
2
Pax fatalities:
2
Other fatalities:
0
Total fatalities:
4
Circumstances:
The twin engine aircraft was used to prove a safe air route from Glasgow-Renfrew to Liverpool-Speke under the sponsorship (and ownership) of the Daily Express in an unofficial response to a report by the Maybury Air Committee into the opening up of routes linking various British cities. The aircraft left Glasgow-Renfrew Airport and headed south to Liverpool but nothing further was heard and when it failed to arrive at its destination, a SAR operation was started. A local resident found the debris on a hill two days later, near the Clatteringshaws Reservoir, some 16 miles southwest of Newton Stewart. All four occupants were killed and the aircraft was destroyed.
Crew:
Leslie T. Jackson, pilot,
Archibald Francis Phillpot, radio operator.
Passengers:
Harold J. Pemberton, journalist for the Daily Express,
Reginald Charles Wesley, photographer for the Daily Express.
Crew:
Leslie T. Jackson, pilot,
Archibald Francis Phillpot, radio operator.
Passengers:
Harold J. Pemberton, journalist for the Daily Express,
Reginald Charles Wesley, photographer for the Daily Express.
Probable cause:
The exact cause of the accident is unknown, but it is assumed that the pilot descended below safe limits in order to follow what he believed to be the coastline or the line of the Solway Firth. Unfortunately, the aircraft was flying too low and in poor visibility, so it contacted a hill known as 'Darnaw'.
