On 22nd February 1966 a flight in this aircraft was planned between Blackpool and Ouston, near Newcastle. The pilot had hired the aircraft from the flying group who owned the aircraft and which he had become a member of some days previously. Prior to taking off at 10.15hrs he discussed with the group flying instructor the route he intended on taking which was to fly up the west coast via Walney Island and St.Bees Head then upto Carlisle and across to Newcastle using visual flying navigation. If the weather was to turn bad he intended on landing at Carlisle. He did not submit a flight plan before taking off and when it failed to return at Ouston nothing was done. The aircraft was only known to be missing when an associate of the pilot became concerned for his whereabouts the following day and when it was learnt that the aircraft had failed to land at Ouston a hugh search operation was conducted. Investigations found that an aircraft was heard by a number of people to over fly the Eskdale area at around the time the aircraft would have been in the area of Millom. The remains of the aircraft was located some seventeen days after the crash near to the summit of Black Combe and had broken up on impact and been damaged by fire with only the tail section escaping severe damage. Black Combe had been shrouded in cloud since the crash and it was not spotted earlier during air searches. It was deemed likely that the pilot had flown into poor weather and reduced visibilty before reaching Carlisle and had opted to try and return to Blackpool but had struck Black Combe. Both pilot and passenger had died as a result of the accident.
Pilot - Mr Frank Christopher Potts, aged 51, of West Kirby, Birkenhead. Buried Neston Cemetery, Wirral, Cheshire.
Passenger - Dr Cyril Leonard Levene B.Sc.(Hons), M.B., Ch.B., D.M.R.(D.), aged 35, of Wootton, Liverpool. Burial location unknown.
Cyril Levene had served in the Royal Army Medical Corps as part of his National Service gaining a commission to Lieutenant on 26th September 1955. He returned to Liverpool after two years of service. He was a Radiographer at Preston Hospital at the time of his death.
I searched for the crash site in October 2011 on a very windy day and the photograph above matches one showing the crash site taken at the time by Ivor Nicholas of Cockermouth, published on the front cover of Mike Hurst's book on Lakeland aircraft accidents. Nothing of the aircraft was found during my visit.