Flight and Route
On the day of the accident, the aircraft departed Southend at 06:59 UTC, approximately one hour before sunrise, under a Special VFR clearance. The planned route took the aircraft to Wallasey via Daventry, Whitegate, and the Liverpool Special Rules Zone at an altitude of 2,400 feet. The reason for the chosen route could not be determined, though the commander had spent a short holiday at Haverigg two weeks earlier, which lies close to the direct track from Wallasey to Glasgow.
Descent and Radar Service Request
After leaving Wallasey, the aircraft tracked north toward Glasgow. At 08:01 UTC, the crew contacted Warton aerodrome, stating they were descending to 1,000 feet and requesting a radar service. At 08:10 UTC, an aircraft that had just departed from Blackpool reported a cloud base between 2,500 and 3,000 feet with visibility greater than 20 km. At this time, the aircraft's radar transponder was operating, but the height encoding facility had not been selected.
Loss of Radar Contact
Radar recordings from Great Dunn Fell and St Anne's ATC showed that the aircraft departed Wallasey on a track of 007° magnetic and maintained this heading until radar contact was lost at 08:13 UTC, at a position one mile southwest of Walney Island airfield near Barrow-in-Furness. Based on terrain obscuration between the radar heads and the aircraft, it was estimated that at the time of loss of contact, the aircraft would have been no higher than 350 feet above mean sea level, and possibly lower.
Communications and Witness Observations
At 08:09 UTC (local sunrise), the crew called Walney Island stating they were nine miles south of the airfield at 1,000 feet and requested overflight. At 08:12 UTC, the Walney Island controller sighted the aircraft abeam the airfield at an estimated height of 800 feet and asked the crew to report at Millom, about eight miles north. Around the same time, a witness on the beach near the airfield observed the aircraft heading north in and out of cloud at an estimated height no higher than 400 feet. The aircraft did not make the requested position report at Millom, and at 08:16 UTC, the controller advised the crew to call London Information for further service; no reply was received.
Final Moments and Crash
The last person to see the aircraft reported it flying steadily north toward Ponsonby Fell, with cloud covering the ground at 500 feet above sea level in that area. At approximately 08:15 UTC, a farmer 600 meters from the crash site heard a bang from the direction of Ponsonby Fell. He described the weather at the time as very bad, with strong wind, rain, and mist covering the fell. The aircraft struck the ground about 15 meters below the summit of Ponsonby Fell. Impact destroyed the aircraft, and both occupants were killed.