Blackburn Mercury on Filey beach.

The aircraft in question (Photo copyright Hawker Siddeley Aviation Ltd). I will remove this photograph if ask to. I see no other website detailing this crash, given when it happened it was the worst in terms of the greatest ever loss of life in an aircraft crash I feel that someone should try and document the crash for the sake of memory of the two young aviators.

This aircraft crashed on the 6th of December 1911, Robert Blackburn's test pilot was training a student pilot when the aircraft was to crash. The aircraft went into a fast dive, this caused the wings to tear off and it crashed onto the beach at Filey. The test pilot was thrown from the aircraft and died of a broken neck. The student was rescued from the aircraft but died less than an hour later of the severe injuries he sustained.

Flight magazine of the time published a letter from Robert Blackburn stating what he thougt the cause of the accident was down to. He stated that the pilot was in the habit of "making steep descents at a very acute angle, and had lately done a great many of these from moderate heights with several of the aerodrome members as passengers". Mr Blackburn stated that he thougt the strain on the wings whilst pulled out of such a dive would be great and the machine could not withstand it. "In this case he did a sudden dive over the town of Filey, from a height of 600 feet", the pilot was in a habit of making these dives prior to landing and whilst pulling out of the dive at about 100 feet, and lower than where the hanger was located, he would then climb and land. He made such a dive with Mr Blackburn himself a passenger, who warned him of such dangers in the load on the wings in pulling out of dives from heights. The pilot probably did not think this danger was as great and ignored these warnings, this was probably the first such accident caused by this reason.

The aircraft was powered by a Renault engine. It may of been used by the flying school but owned by Blackburn Ltd.

Test Pilot - Mr Hubert Oxley, aged 25, of ? Buried ?

Student Pilot - Mr Robert J Weiss, aged 29, of Dewsbury, Yorkshire. Buried ?

Left to right. Robert J Weiss, Bentfield C Hucks and a 26 year old Mr Robert Blackburn. (Photo copyright H L Weiss)

General shot of area of the crash and where the building was shown in the top photo of this webpage.