Hawker Hind K6848 at Yeadon aerodrome.
During the afternoon of Sunday, 18th June 1939 a flight of nine 609 Squadron Hawker Hind's prepared to take off from Yeadon aerodrome in three groups of three with the viewing area at the western side of the aerodrome site having members of the public within it watching what was happening. It was raining at around 14.15hrs when one of the aeroplanes in the first group of three to take off rose to around ten feet above the ground the engine cut, the pilot immediately landed but was unable to stop on the available area and it ran off the aerodrome site. The aeroplane first collided with the wind direction indicator on the west side of the aerodrome, then bounced across the remaining aerodrome land and ran across the public viewing area. Unfortunately two boys were in the path of the aeroplane and one of them was struck on the head as it passed. The aeroplane then hit a poplar tree on the boundary of a garden that slowed it considerably, but it ran through the garden fence and tipped onto its nose coming to rest with the nose in the ground and the tail resting against the rear of a pair of semi-detached houses along Victoria Avenue. The owners of one of the houses, what the newspapers described as being Mr and Mrs H.Driver, of No.16 Victoria Avenue, were parking their car on the drive next to their house when the struck the tree. The owner of the other, Mr Asa Holdsworth, of "Cotswold", next door was inside the house. The boy who was struck on the head sustained concussion and scalp injuries, he was taken to Leeds General Infirmary for treatment. Mr Holdsworth placed a ladder beside the cockpit so that both airmen could climb down with the passenger having sustained minor injuries. Later that day around two dozen air cadets were called to assit with the removal of the aeroplane, around five hours after the crash it was lowered and placed on a trailer before being pushed back to the aerodome site.
I am struggling to prove where the crash site was. Using Google Streetview, old mapping and old photographs it appears to have been one of the properties around a spur of Victoria Avenue that ran toward the early part of the aerodrome site. The two far end properties on the spur were converted into a clubhouse for the Yorkshire Aeroplane Club earlier in the 1930s. All the buildings on the spur and three pairs of semi detached houses on the junction with the main part of Victoria Avenue were later compulsary purchased and then demolished as they were in a direct line from the East-West runway that was eventually built. On modern aerial photography the ghost of the former spur road is visible but all trace of the buildings are long gone. From looking at a range of maps and old photographs I would strongly suggest that Hind K6948 crashed into the southern end pair of houses that were on Victoria Road rather than the spur.
Pilot - P/O John Charles Dundas RAF (90334).
Passenger - LAC Hunter. Minor injuries.
Bystander - Master Alan Browning, aged 12, of Gloucester Road, Bradford Moor. Head injuries.