The Tosside Tragedy

Here is an article about a tragic aircrash that happened 73 years near the Yorkshire village of Tosside, it is still talked about locally but little known outside of the area.

Aircrash near Tosside

73 years ago the Yorkshire countryside around the tiny farming village of Tosside was shaken by a tragic disaster that remains one of the deadliest to have ever happened in the area, and which is still remembered and talked about in the small, closely knit community to this day.

The accident occurred on Saturday the 24th of June, 1950 when a light aircraft, a Percival Proctor Mark 3, which had been privately hired for a jaunt from West Hartlepool to Blackpool, crashed and exploded in a field outside the village, after a failed take off in foggy weather.

Fatalities

The plane had been chartered by a husband and wife from Thornaby-on-Tees; Mr Edward Hornby, 73 a retired bus driver, and his wife Una, 51 who worked in a fish and chip shop, and also invited along for the trip was Una’s close friend Phyllis Bell, 34, from Stockton-in-Tees, who worked in a launderette.

The pilot of the aircraft, Douglas Barker Crabtree, 35, lived in West Hartlepool with his wife and son, and was a flight instructor and manager at nearby Greatham Airport. He had only just returned to work from a family holiday the day before and this was his first job back at work. An experienced pilot, he had fought in the Battle of Britain and ranked as a flight lieutenant in the RAF, mentioned in dispatches several times during the war he had served in places as far away as Italy and Hungary.

Emergency landing

At about 11:30 on the Saturday the plane was seen by several witnesses to circle a large field outside the village 3 times before landing. Aeroplanes were very rarely spotted in this part of the world in the 50s so the sound and spectacle of the noisy, single prop aircraft drew the attention of anyone who was out and about in the vicinity, including the owner of the field, farmer Christopher Sutcliffe, of Brockthorne farm.

Mr Sutcliffe recounted to local newspapers, and at the inquest into the incident a fortnight later, that around 40 people had made their way to the field to look at the aircraft and himself and several others had spoken to the pilot, mr Crabtree. He had told them that he lost his bearings in the foggy weather and had decided to locate Clitheroe and the river Ribble, which he intended to follow downstream to Preston and the river’s source, from where he could then proceed the short distance to Blackpool Airport.

Another man present at the scene, William Staveley, also a farmer, remembered that the pilot had mentioned that his radio had been out of order, and a veterinary surgeon from Settle, Thomas Roberts, who had been inspecting William Staveley’s Cattle, recalled that the pilot had landed as he had lost his way and did not want to proceed with the trip.

Mr Sutcliffe said that the pilot had waited about an hour for the fog to clear and in this time had checked that the surface and the length of the field were both suitable enough to attempt to take off from it;

“He examined the surface of the field and estimated the distance,” Mr Sutcliffe said at the inquest held at the nearby town of Settle 2 days later. “Then he waved to the people in the field, revved up the engine and quickly taxied across the meadow.”

This is when things quickly went wrong with the attempted take off.

“The plane rose but caught the top of the stone wall at the edge of the field,” Mr Sutcliffe recounted, “One wing was ripped off and the machine turned over and crashed into the next field, bursting into flames so fierce that we couldn’t get anywhere near it.”

The first day of the inquest

At the inquest, held 2 days after the incident in the small, North Yorkshire market town of Settle, which is the nearest settlement of any size to Tosside, the testimony of several other witnesses was heard.

Farmer Horace Herd, of Skirden Hall Farm, had also seen the aircraft circling and had spoken to the pilot when he had climbed out of the plane on mr Sutcliffe’s field, he had spoken to the passengers, who had told him they were on their to Blackpool for a holiday.

He told the inquest he saw the plane turn to take off from the field and had them left to go back to his work, but on doing so heard a loud crash and turned to see the plane aflame, he did not witness anyone escaping from the wreckage and later saw four bodies being removed from the wreckage.

The doctor who was first present at the aftermath of the accident, and who examined the bodies; David Hyslop, from Settle, concluded that the cause of the death had been burning.

Also giving evidence on the first day of the inquest was the pilot’s brother Paul Barker, a musician from Sowerby Bridge, who said that his brother was a very experienced pilot who had been flying since the age of 20, he positively identified that his brother had been the pilot at the time of the crash from a driving licence which had been found at the scene.

Mr Hornby’s son was present in the first day of the inquest and identified several other items which had been found near, or in, the wreckage, as did Mrs Bell’s brother in law.

As well as the driving licence these items included ration cards, ID cards, a letter confirming a booking at a hotel in Blackpool, an attaché case belonging to Una Hornby, and various items of luggage.

The second day of the inquest

On the second day of the inquest a plane engineer from West Hartlepool, Mr Ernest Goldsborough. He confirmed that the plane had been privately hired by a travel agency based in Stockton-on-Tees and that he had seen the passengers turn up on morning of the 24th and walk off to the plane with Mr Crabtree.

Evidence was heard that the pilot may have mis-calculated the overall weight of the passengers and luggage and that the plane may therefore have been overloaded, but the verdict given was of death by misadventure. The coroner commented that the system of weighing passengers and calculating a ‘load sheet’ was woefully sub-par and called for a better system of record keeping.

It was found that the pilot had filled in a load sheet for the journey, but had since altered it, and the original had been destroyed in the crash, leaving only the copy which had been made illegible by the crash. Questions were raised about this and the inquest was resumed a week later to run over the proceedings of it’s second day.

Conclusion

Questions and doubts about whether the aircraft was overloaded, and the efficacy of scales used at Greatham airport for the purpose of weighing passengers were heard. As were questions about the lack of a radio, but the coroner presiding over the inquest, Stephen Brown, from Settle, concluded that there was no evidence of neglect on anyone’s part, and that if there had been any discrepancy in weight, it would have been within acceptable limits.

He said that he believed that the pilot had been forced to land after losing his bearings and that he had no need for a radio anyway, as he was not flying in a controlled flight zone.

He finally concluded that the aircraft had cleared the ground on take off until almost reaching the wall, but then a part of it had hit the wall and caused it to be thrown on it’s back, whereupon the aircraft had burst into flames, resulting in the tragic death of all onboard.

A very similar incident occurred in 2012 which also involved a light aircraft en-route to Blackpool which encountered difficulties and had to make an emergency landing, I observed this happen myself and you can read about it in the article linked below, however this thankfully didn’t result in any fatalities or injuries, although it very nearly could have done.

https://northwestnatureandhistory.wordpress.com/2023/03/19/crash-landing-at-dunsop/

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