R.A.F. FATALITIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 134, 8 June 1937, Page 9

R.A.F. FATALITIES

WEEKEND TOTAL OF SEVEN LONDON, June 6. Furthtr reports of Royal Air Force accidents at the weekend bring the total number of killed to seven. A plane which left Wigtonshire to fly to Nottinghamshire crashed and both occupants were burnt beyond recognition within 10 miles of the bomber found in Westmoreland and on the other side of the Crinkle Crags, a 2800 ft ridge at the head of Langdale Valley. The plane was wedged in the rocks close to the summit. Stretcher parties climbed the" hillsides to bring down the bodies, but found it impossible to move them without special apparatus, as they were tangled up yi the crumpled fuselage. The plane was one of six which set off in company, but only three arrived at their destination. Another was forced to land owing to fog. The third non-arrival was the bomber which crashed at Auchtengallie. A light plane apparently seeking a landing place in Kent, crashed in Bromley Hill cemetery, narrowly missing several women tending the graves. The pilot was killed. Air Force accidents for 1937 now number 39, with 61 deaths. A cable published yesterday reported that a bomber which had been missing since Friday in misty weather was found in Westmoreland, where it had crashed. There were two bodies in the machine, which had struck the face of a precipice and dropped 50ft to a huge boulder, which prevented it rolling hundreds of feet down the mountainside Another bomber crashed and took fire at Auchtengallie, Scotland, the two occupants being incinerated. A third plane went into a spin and struck a tree in Berkshire, an E.A.F. sergeant being killed.