Unidentified Blackburn B.2 (G-ACEP?) at Brough.
This aeroplane was owned by the North Sea Aerial and General Transport Company who provided flying training for RAF Reserve pilots. On 14th August 1933 this aeroplane was being flown on a training flight in the Brough area where the unit the airmen flying it were based. At around 11.00hrs it was seen to take off from Brough by witnesses of the eventual crash who were at the station, these witnesses believed the pilot had had trouble soon after taking off while attempting to fly around and return to the airfield. This would suggest that the trainee pilot was flying a circuits and landing exercise. Unfortunately as it neared the aerodrome site the aeroplane did not have enough height to reach the aerodrome site, it overflew the railway station site and struck a telegraph pole with its left wing. The wing was broken off and the aeroplane fell into the railway goods yard which caused other damage. Fortunately the fuselage landed on the wheels and little damage appears to have been sustained. Both men escaped injury and released themselves from the cockpit. The flying school later released a statement to state that the trainee pilot's foot slipped off the rudder bar when he was returning to the aerodrome and while the instructor took control the aeroplane was too low for him to regain complete control and make a successful landing. Comparing period mapping, a photograph of the aeroplane and modern aerial photographs, the site appears to have been at the eastern end of the good yard site and close to the goods shed. The goods yard site had been built over with modern housing in more recent years. The aeroplane may have been repaired. At the time of creating this webpage I have been unable to identify it though it may have been G-ACEP.
Pilot (instructor) - Captain Norman Hargreave Woodhead DSC RAFO (70750).
Pilot (pupil) - F/O Leslie Frank Stanley RAFO (70641).