I am not too keen on attempting to document this incident because it was not an accident but an act of suicide. Because the incident needs to be recorded in any record of flying "accidents" or crashes in the Lake District I have created this basic webpage.

The pilot involved was on police bail and due to appear in court to face fraud charges involving his stockbroker employer. The incident occurred on Tuesday, 31st July 1973. Earlier in the day he had hired the Beagle Pup from Blackbushe airfield. The pilot involved had written a notes stating that he was going to kill himself and telephoned his wife to say that he was going to fly an aircraft into Tower Bridge in London. She contacted the police and they appear to have cleared the area of traffic by the time he had flown to London. He flew the aircraft between the towers of Tower Bridge twice and also at low level between tower blocks in central London before heading north. Later in the day the aircraft was seen flying around the Keswick area, witnesses estimated it to have dived towards the ground from around 1,500 feet at full power. It crashed into trees beside the lakeside car park at Cockshot Wood and the pilot was killed.

Pilot - Mr Peter William James Martin, aged 27, of Hampstead, North London. Burial location unknown.