On 17th September 1966 this aircraft took off from Milfield airfield in Northumberland at 09.55hrs and headed towards Carlisle, at around 10.30hrs the aircraft was in the area of Carlisle. The visibility was poor over the west side of the country and low cloud was present over the Lake District with cloud base at around 2,000ft. The aircraft was later seen flying down Borrowdale and upon reaching the head of the valley which was almost certainly blanketed in cloud it simply flew into the head of the valley at Esk Hause at 11.17hrs sadly killing the pilot and his passenger. The accident site was located by marshalls for a fell running race who alerted the authorities.
Pilot - Mr Gerald Dunham Massy, aged 28. Burial location unknown.
Passenger - Mr Lennox Gordon Fraser Aitchison, aged 41, of Coupland Castle, Wooler, Northumberland. Buried Old Bewick Churchyard, Northumberland.
Gerald Massy was born in 1938 almost certainly in India and was the son of Eyre Fitzgerald and Peggy Ada Massy. His grandfather Harry Stanley Massy served as an officer in the Indian Army but was retired when his son Eyre was baptised at Fulham, London in 1907. His father Eyre Fitzgerald Francis Massy served in the Army in India in the 1930s; in 1939 he was appointed to the India Reserve of Officers. At the age of eight, in January 1946 Gerald sailed from Bombay to Southampton on a Cunard White Star ship with his five year old sister Lyn. Their address was given as Reading Road, Wokingham at that time. Gerald served in the Royal Navy in the 1950s. A newspaper report found relating to this addident stated that he was in charge of the aviation department of an insurance brokers at the time of his death. On probate his address is given as being Bourne Street, London. His father died in Salcombe, Devon in 1970.
Lennox Aitchison was born on 27th September 1925, he was a son of Sir Walter de Lancey Aitchison, 2nd Bt and Lady Shena Lennox Aitchison. After attending Rugby School, Rugby, Warwickshire he was educated at Trinity College Oxford where he gained a Bachelor of Arts in 1949. He then completed his Master of Arts at Trinity College Oxford in 1954. He was a teacher when this accident occurred.
There is a brief mention elsewhere on the internet that both men had been reasonable cricketers of their day and both played for Harrow Wanderers.
The aircraft flew in from the right of the photograph shown above and struck the rock outcrop just to the right centre, the aircraft then crashed on the area in front of the outcrop where much of the existing wreckage still on the site remains. The photograph below shows a general view of where the aircraft crashed after it struck the outcrop looking down Eskdale.
The aircraft's flat four engine which appears to have been once buried under rocks although it looks to have been uncovered some years ago.
Further pieces of the aircraft of the aircraft still on the site include this section of aircraft with the colour scheme of the aircraft still evident.
With this being a relatively modern civilian aircraft there are yet to be really any photographs of Piper inspection stamps on the internet, I include this photograph here. The plate shown below was found on a section of pipe, which probably formed part of the engine exhaust system.
