Found on a grave stone in our local churchyard. Thomas Gordon Young, Radio Officer, died 20 May 1948 in an air accident, aged 25 years. Anyone know anything of this accident?
Dannemois, an interesting link here, including a post by T.G. Youngs daughter, who was born 10 days after he was killed in a plane crash. marriage lookup young to le templier about 1947 Family History Local History
This could be the incident, not much detail im afraid. http://www.planecrashinfo.com/1948/1948-31.htm
ACCIDENT REPORT THE Chief Inspector of Accidents, A. Cdre. Vernon Brown, reports* that he has been unable to determine the cause of the accident involving Dakota .G-AJBG which occurred at 01.54 hr. on "May 20th, 1948. The aircraft was owned by Air Transport (Charter) (C.I.), Ltd.,. and was on a charter flight from Valence, France, to Bovingdon with a cargo of fruit. While making a circuit of Bovingdon beneath a cloud-base which had lowered to 300ft, the aircraft flew into a wood about half a mile from the airfield and was wrecked. Fire did not break out, but Capt. Boalch, Radio Officer T. G. Young Flight Engineer H. Spencer were all killed. The First Officer, G. Castellain, was seriously injured. The Inspector was unable to find evidence of pre-crash failure in the aircraft or its equipment and at the time of the accident rJhe undercarriage was down and the airscrews were in fine 'pitch. The pilot had not requested or obtained clearance before entering I.F.R. conditions in the vicinity of Bovingdon and he had been informed that the cloud-base was 400ft. This height was below the minimum recommended for the approach procedure adopted by him. The pilot had not been informed that the cloud-base was in fact 300ft at the time of his arrival, nor that it had been as low as 200ft earlier. The Inspector considered that control of the aircraft from Bovingdon was not carried out with a high degree of efficiency. *M.C.A. Publication 71. H.M. Stationery Office; Thanks to Paul McMillan. Regards Peter
I believe I remember my father taking me to see the site of this crash.. He worked at Northolt and I was 5 at the time. I vividly remember boxes (like tea boxes) of cherries lying around covered in oil. Also I'm almost certain I saw boxes of fur coats or collars in the wreckage also covered in oil.
