DROPPING IN

 Wherever we live there will locations not too far away where risks exist in the course of our daily lives.  Often risks we would not normally be aware of – until something happens to make us suddenly more alert.  A vehicle leaving the road at speed and making a dent in your front living room; a train leaving the tracks and ending up in your back garden at the foot of an embankment; an aeroplane losing a landing wheel or depositing a block of its ice in a nearby park.

St Albans' own east end has received its own share of transport incidents through time, and because it is close to airfields, among them Harpsfield airfield (known as de Havilland) and Handley Page's former airfield, known at the beginning of aero history as St Julian's airfield, we received our fair share of visits from the sky.

When air incidents were considered "novel" photographs could almost be guaranteed for publication in the Herts Advertiser.  Even a special edition had been known on such an occasion. Here is a selection of what might be called rough landings from the 1930s, in no particular chronological sequence.

Original headline:  Aeroplane Crash

The wreckage of a two-seater aeroplane which crashed at Hammonds Wood, near Sandridge.  The pilot was only slightly injured.

Original headline: Monoplane Crash at Hatfield

An instructional plane which crashed in a field adjoining the Hatfield and St Albans Road near Hatfield.  The pilot, Flying Officer, W B Wilson, was injured.  His passenger, Mr J R Denny, escaped injury.

Original headline: 'Plane wrecked at Hatfield (1935)

Crashed into a tree when landing. Two airmen were slightly injured when their plane crashed into a field adjoining Hatfield Aerodrome.  The machine, a dual control Avro Cadet used for Flying Officers' training,  is owned by the Civil Training Company of Hamble Hants. It collided with a tree on the Harpsfield Hall Estate.

Original headline: None (1938)

Three men lost their lives when two aeroplanes collided in mid-air and burst into flames at Smallford.  This picture was reprinted from a Special Edition of the Herts Advertiser published last Friday.

 

Original headline: Aeroplane at Hatfield (1932)

The wreckage of an aeroplane which crashed at Hatfield on Sunday.  The pilot, Mr F W Marshall of the Royal Air Force Reserve, escaped serious injury.

Original headline: Bombing 'Plane Crash (1931)

Royal Air Force bombing plane which crashed while landing at the Handley Page aerodrome, Colney Street near StAlbans on Tuesday.  The pilot and his passenger escaped injury.

Original headline: Fatal Aeroplane Crash near Hatfield (1937)

Mr R J Waight, chief test pilot of the de Havilland Aircraft Co Ltd in the TK4 machine which crashed into a field near the Aerodrome on Friday.  Mr Waight was fatally injured.

 Original headline: Plane Crash at Sandridge (1935)

The wreckage of an instructional aeroplane from the de Havilland School of Flying, Hatfield, which crashed at Sandridge, on Friday.  The pilot, Mr L C Cheetham of Darby, escaped injury.

All of the above photographs are printed courtesy the Herts Advertiser.