Percival Proctor G-ALUJ.
On 10th February 1960 the pilot / owner of this civilian registered Percival Proctor was making a business flight from Yeadon to Newcastle (Woolsington) airfield, he left Yeadon airfield
and headed north but mid-flight he received a weather report stating poor weather was present around his destination. He asked for permission to land elsewhere in the Newcastle area though
this did not happen. Fifty five minutes into the flight he advised Newcastle ATC that he was returning to Yeadon because of low cloud in the Newcastle area. Some time later the aircraft was
found crashed onto the western lower slopes of Roseberry Topping which was shrouded in mist, Roseberry Topping is a distinct rock outcrop north of Great Ayton and twenty miles east of his
probable intended flight path back to Yeadon. The aircraft's tail section was reportedly found a slight distance from the main crash site in trees by the main road to Newton under Roseberry.
The rest of the aircraft was found in trees in Newton Wood and had damaged the tops of some trees during the crash. Sadly the pilot was killed in the crash.
This Proctor was built to contract ACFT/498 by F. Hills and Sons in Manchester, was delivered to the RAF in March 1942 and was given the military registation DX198. After acceptance
it was issued to No.4 Signal School at Madley in 1942. No.4 Signal School was renamed No.4 Radio School on 18th June 1943 and the aircraft continued to serve at Madley.
It was transferred to the Metropolitan Communications Squadron at Hendon some time after the 8th April 1944. It was later declared surplus to requirements and on 11th
October 1944 it was going to be transferred to the civil register as G-AGLC but this registration was not taken up and the aircraft remained with M.C.S. at Hendon. M.C.S. was
renamed 31 Squadron on 19th July 1948 and remained at Hendon. The aircraft carried the squadron code "VS-D" around this time. The aircraft was eventually declared surplus to requirements and was sold on 28th July 1949 becoming G-ALUJ on the civilian register. On 31st October 1953 it was sold to a new owner in France and registered F-DADK but it soon returned to the UK on 29th December 1955 and it's registration G-ALUJ was restored. It was destroyed in the accident at Roseberry Topping on 10th February 1960.
Pilot - Mr John Michael Stockdale Procter, aged 34, of Rawden, Yorkshire. Buried Pudsey Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Michael Procter was born in Keighley in 1925 and was the son of Herbert Leathley and Kathleen (nee Stockdale) Procter. He married Mary Alexandra Routhledge in Suffolk in 1944. He had learnt to
fly at Sherburn in Elmet with the Club in 1954 and was also a member of the Yeadon Aero Club, later serving as an instructor to the Yorkshire Territorial Flying Group and an assistant instructor
with the Yorkshire Flying Services. He had only been elected as chairman of the Yorkshire Aeroplane Club committee three days prior to his death.