On the 2nd of July 1972 a Cessna took off from Teesside Airport to fly in the direction of Bridlington. The aircraft had being flying low so that one of those on board could photograph his farm near Ingleby Greenhow. The pilot then did not pull the aircraft in time in order to clear the high ground in front of it. The pilot managed to pull up the nose of the aircraft at the last moment which may well have saved the lives of the three men on board but the aircraft summersaulted a number of times before coming to a halt upside down on Greenhow Moor. The three men on board they were lucky to walk away with their lives.
The aircraft was built by Reims Aviation SA at Reims, France and first registered in the UK to Northair Aviation Ltd at Leeds/Bradford on 12th April 1967 who only kept the aircraft until 16th May 1967 when it was put up for sale. It was purchased by Stourfield Investments Ltd based in Jersey on 4th October 1967 and remained with them until put up for sale on 26th August 1968. It was purchased by Saturn Aviation Ltd at Fairoaks on 14th January 1968 and remained with them until 6th March 1969. It was registered to a Robert Jaffe at Elstree on 8th May 1969 and remained with him until 26th June 1970. It was then registered to Air Gregory Ltd at Denham on 8th July 1970 but was only with them for 10 days until 18th July 1970. On 28th July 1970 Brismo Finance Ltd (a finace company) took the registration and the aircraft almost certainly remained at Denham awaiting a purchaser. On 19th January 1972 the aircraft was registered to Beacon Air Services Ltd at Teesside Airport and was destroyed on 2nd July 1972 in the incident detailed above.
Pilot - Mr Fred Ayres, aged 30, of Hilton-in-Cleveland, suffered from shock.
Passenger - Mr Gerry Broad, aged 30, of Low Farm, Ingleby Greenhow, suffered nose and chest injuries.
Passenger - Mr Alan Robinson, aged 25, of Acklam, Middlesbrough, suffered a leg injury.
Mr Broad's daughter had warned her father not to go on the plane that day because she feared it would crash. It did. I hope his photographs came out well.
John Skinn and myself searched for the crash site in December 2005. We think that we found the exact area of the crash after lining the hillside up with the way a press photograph appeared. Nothing in the way of wreckage was found, but we didn't expect there to be anything.
Thanks to Mr John Severs for the information has has been able to give regarding this accident and others in the locality.