Blackburn Bluebird G-AABV near Hedon aerodrome.
During the afternoon of Tuesday, 6th March 1934 the eventual pilot of this Blackburn Bluebird travelled to the Hull Aero Club aerodrome where he was a member and with the intention of borrowing a club aeroplane to carry out some flying. When he arrived there unfortunately no Club aircraft was available for him to use. He informed the chief instructor at the club that he had earlier been given permission to use Bluebird G-AABV from it's owner and the chief instructor was also the ground engineer in charge of G-AABV. Having no reason to disbelieve him the instructor / engineer handed over the Bluebird to him after checking the fuel level and that the engine was running properly. The pilot informed the engineer that he intended to carry out aerobatics. It later transpired that the would-be pilot had actually not obtained permission from the Bluebird's owner to fly the aircraft and had actually not spoken to him for six months. At around 17.20hrs the Bluebird took off and after climbing to around 2000 feet, the pilot carried out one loop. He then made three attempts to carry out a slow roll but was unable to because the aircraft stalled in the early stage of the roll each time, after each attempt the aircraft side-slipped and then entered a dive from which the pilot levelled out at around 1500 feet. During the fourth attempt at a roll the aircraft became inverted and while it side-slipped and dived towards the ground, the pilot was able to partially regain control before it stalled and fell into the ground. The pilot received fatal injuries in the resulting crash in the Fairbank area and died in hospital the following day. No techincal defect was found to suggest a technical failure and the investigation blamed pilot error.
Pilot - F/O Dr John Hugh Paton MB ChB RAFO, aged 34, of Rosmin, Edinburgh. Cremated and ashed scattered from a Brough aeroplane over the North Sea.
John Paton was born on 17th March 1899 and was flying during the First World War. He later transferred to the RAF Reserve and had done a considerable amount of flying at Brough with the RAF and also at Hedon but in their club Moth aircraft. He had had little experience in flying a Blackburn Bluebird, having flown G-AABV just once and briefly. A newspaper report after this fatal crash states that he had had two minor crashes recently.
Blackburn Bluebird G-AABV was built by the Blackburn Aeroplane and Motor Co.Ltd. in 1928 and was the first Bluebird to be built in an all metal construction. The aircraft was first owned by S/Ldr L H Slater who operated it from Brough. On 6th February 1930 it was sold back to Blackburns. It was next sold to Dr. C.S.Glass who also operated it from brough. Mr T.E.Richardson became its owner in June 1933 and it was slightly damaged in an accident on 21st September 1933 but details of where and how this accident occurred is not known. It was the returned to Blackburn's for repair and reconditioning, and once ready was returned to Mr Richardson by mid-October 1933. Following the crash on 6th March 1934 the aeroplane was written off, the registration was cancelled on 30th September 1934.