Botha L6205 near Ellerker, Brough.
On 8th July 1940 this aircraft had just been built at Brough and was being test flown around the area of Brough airfield by a Blackburn Ltd pilot, during the flight it entered a spin from which the pilot was unable to recover and it crashed into an oat field at 17.45hrs. The crash site was close to Sands Land, Ellerker and sadly the civilian test-pilot was killed. Wreckage was reported to have been spread over three hundred yards in a Civil Defence report sourced. There are unconfirmed reports that the aircraft had suffered sabotage which may be far-fetched.
Pilot - Mr Douglas Frank Charles Brecknell, aged 32. Buried Greenbank Cemetery, Bristol.
On 18th June 1934 Douglas Brecknell was the pilot of a four passenger D.H.83 Fox Moth G-ABYO which was registered to Norman Edgar at Bristol Airport, Whitchurch, Bristol. The aircraft was on a flight from Llanvair, near Caerwent to Scotland. There were two passengers on board from Caldicot Tin Stamping Works who were being flown by him on a buisness trip to Glasgow. The aircraft was on approach to land at Five Lanes, near Llanvair Discoed where there was presumably a landing ground, the civilian aircraft crashed near Llanvair Discoed, Wales after it was seen to dive into the ground at catch fire near Llanvair Discoed. Mr Brecknell was thrown out of the aircraft on impact but the two passengers remained trapped, he rescued the two passengers (although one later died of his injuries) before a number of witnesses arrived at the crash site. He then continued civilian flying and passed an examination for his Second Class Civil Air Navigator license in January 1936. In 1938 he begun working as a pilot for Jersey Airways Ltd flying their fleet of DH86's.
His brother Mervyn St.John Brecknell served in the The South Lancashire Regiment (The Prince of Wales's Volunteers) during the War and was granted the rank of Hon. Major in 1946.
Douglas Brecknell was born in 1907 in Bristol and had served in the RAF in its early years. He received a commission to P/O on probation on 21st June 1927 (into the Reserve of Air Force
Officers) and was confirmed in the rank of P/O on 8th June 1928. He rose to F/O on 8th December 1928 but cannot have remained in military flying for long, as by 1934 he was a civilian pilot.