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Registration or Serial: G-AHEC
Operator:
Personal Airways on behalf of Daily Express
Newspapers (the aircraft's owners)
Operating Base: Unknown
Aircraft Nickname: Unknown
Aircraft Type & Background
The DH90 Dragonfly was 5-seat biplane.
Two seats were situated in the nose of the aircraft, with a single
seat behind. The remaining two seats were located at the back of the
cabin.
The DH90A (production
version) Dragonfly entered service in 1935. This version was
equipped with two 130 hp de Havilland Gipsy Major II air-cooled
engines. It's maximum speed near sea level was 232km/h (144mph). It
had a cruising range of about 1,424km (885 miles).
Aircraft Accident Details
This aircraft belonged
to Daily Express Newspapers. At the time of the accident, the aircraft was
tracking the new civil aviation routes for a planned feature by Express
Newspapers.
The Dragonfly had
arrived at Glasgow (Renfrew) aerodrome from Ireland. Then, taking
off from Renfrew, it set course for Liverpool (Speke) airport.
On board was a senior Express reporter, Major Harold Pemberton,
together with a 22-year old photographer, Reginald Wesley. The pilot
of the aircraft was Lesley Jackson and his wireless operator was
Archibald Phillpot. The crew was flying for Personal Airways—the
company responsible for operating the aircraft on behalf of Express
Newspapers.
Some time after leaving Renfrew,
contact with the aircraft was lost, and nothing further was heard
from it. When it became overdue at Speke airport, the RAF began searching
for it. However, it was not until two
days later that the crashed aircraft was discovered by a shepherd who
lived near Newton Stewart. He had heard the sound of an aircraft
while attending to the sheep on the hills. Later, after returning
home, he heard a wireless (radio)
report of a missing aircraft, and returned to the hills to search.
Eventually, he found the wreckage, together with four bodies, on Darnaw (a
peak on the Galloway Hills). The shepherd
then descended from the crash site and immediately travelled by bicycle to notify the
police some miles away in
Newton Stewart.
There is no solid
evidence for the cause of the crash. Another pilot, who was interviewed
during the enquiry, thought that the de Havilland pilot might
have mistaken Clatteringshaws Loch (a new unmapped reservoir in the Galloway
Hills) for the Solway Firth. If so, it was assumed that the pilot
had descended below safe limits in order to follow what he believed
to be the coastline or the line of the Solway Firth.
Unfortunately, however, the aircraft was over much higher ground at
the time, and, in poor visibility, it soon impacted with the peak
known as Darnaw.
Some time after the
accident, the Daily Express arranged for a memorial to be placed on Darnaw, near the crash site.
This memorial can be seen at the site today.
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Accident Date
2
February 1937
Accident
Site
Darnaw
(Clatteringshaws Loch, Galloway Forest
Park)
Region:
Dumfries & Galloway
Nearest
town or village:
Newton Stewart
or New Galloway
OS Grid Ref:
73 / NX 515765
(Memorial Stone)
Present Condition
As far as is known, no wreckage remains onsite.
However, the crash site is marked by a memorial which
was placed there on behalf of Daily Express Newspapers.
Related Links
Above: A de-Havilland DH90 Dragonfly
Photo: 1950
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