Airship C11 at Scarborough.
On 23rd April 1917 this Coastal Class Airship, the C11, had taken off from Howden at 08.50hrs to undertake a North Sea patrol, it was returning from this patrol and was flying in the Scarborough area when it struck the hillside close to Scarborough racecourse whilst flying in thick fog which blanked the Yorkshire coast. The captain of the airship ordered his crew to climb to try and avoid the hill but the tail dropped and it clipped the top of the hill. The tail skid of the airship broke away, taking with it the after engine and controls, the engineer's seat and the engineers. The ship was then 1000lbs lighter and ascended rapidly and continued on it's way for a short time as the remaining crew tried to release the gas, presumably to force land. The balloon ripped and the C11 crashed again soon after, thought to be in the Irton Moor area. The three left on board were slightly injured. The flight engineer escaped serious injury and walked to the nearest telephone to contact his base, given the era there would not have been many in the area and it is believed that he found the nearest post office and rang Howden to inform them what had happened. The immortal message of "Have landed safely with engine. Request further instructions" was sent!
Mr Brian Turpin's research has been refered to in this documentation but I cannot exactly remember how Icame about his unpublished work, I thank him for contacting me in January 2012. Mr Turpin is soon to be publishing a book "British Naval Airships" which will include this incident.
The C11 airship was built at Kingsnorth, Isle of Grain, Kent. It began trials on 9th June 1916 before being flown to Howden from Kingsnorth on 26th June 1916 and it damaged a propeller when landing at Howden. After the incident at Scarborough, and although badly damaged it was taken away and rebuilt as C11a at Kingsnorth. It was lost when it crashed into the River Humber on 21st July 1917, this time the five crew drowned after the resulting explosion. It was again recovered and repaired before finally struck off charge in March 1918. The C11 airship and three others, C4, C19 and C21 airships where nick-named "The Howden Pigs".
Captain - F/Lt Edward K Hogg Turnour RNAS. Suffered broken legs (Sub Lt RN).
Coxwain - (Possibly) Flight Sub-Lt William E McConnell RNAS. Suffered broken legs.
W/T Operator - (Possibly) Probationary F/O E D B Russell RNAS. Suffered internal injuries.
Engineer - Name unknown. Suffered a broken arm and shock.
Little is currently known about those on this airship when it crashed near Scarborough, Edward K H Turnour was promoted to F/Lt on 31st December 1916 and died in the St.Asaph district of Denbighshire, Wales in 1968. William McConnell entered the RNAS under the rank of probationary Flight Sub-Lieutenant of 1st April 1915 for temporary service, and was confirmed in the rank of Flight Sub-Lieutenant on 10th December 1915. He was promoted to Flight Lieutenant (temporary) on 1st January 1918 but was transferred to the Unemployed List on 10th January 1919.