Blackburn Bluebird G-EBRG near Sherburn in Elmet.
On Sunday, 5th February 1928 this aircraft was being flown over the Sherburn in Elmet area by a member of the Yorkshire Aeroplane Club, based at Sherburn. During the flight the aircraft entered an uncontrolled spin from which the pilot initially lost control from around 600 feet above the ground. The pilot manage to put the aircraft into a dive and was recovering the aircraft but ran out of height and dived into the ground near the airfield at Sherburn in Elmet. Members of the club were watching the aeroplane at the time and saw it crash into a field three fields away from their hanger. While they pulled the pilot from the wreckage he sadly received fatal injuries and died soon after. This aeroplane crashed within yards of where the club's first fatal crash occurred in September 1927.
Pilot - Mr Albert Critchley, aged 30. Buried Heaton Cemetery, Bolton, Lancashire.
G-EBRG was the fourth aircraft that the Yorkshire Aeroplane Club owned. It was received by them on 16th September 1927.
Albert Critchley was the son of Edward and Betsy Critchley and was born on 7th December 1897 in Bolton. He had served in the RFC and later the RAF during the First World War until ending his service in March 1919. By 1928 he had joined the Yorkshire Aeroplane Club and was intending on applying for a B-Licence had he not died in February 1928.