Dakota DC3: One, two, three push that plane!

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PETER Hulse worked in the aero spares department at Rolls-Royce from 1962-69 and used to fly regularly in Dakota DC3s from the fledgling Burnaston Airport to Renfrew, near Glasgow, to visit the Rolls-Royce factories at Hillington and East Kilbride.

“Every trip, you took your life in your hands,” said Peter, of Newhall. “I would arrive at the airport in a chauffeur-driven car and then climb into an old Heath Robinson aircraft. A lot of the lads refused to fly, preferring to take the midnight train.

“It was quite a hairy experience, especially coming back at night-time, in the winter. The main pinpoints for landing were the lights on the chimneys of the power station at Willington. The planes used to line up between the lights, then fly in parallel to the A38, judging where they were by the car headlights. They would often overshoot the runway.

“They were all old Second World War Dakotas – converted cargo planes with double cargo doors. You sat on canvas deckchair seats and they had no heating. At 14,000, it got pretty cold. You were given a blanket on board and, half way there, they would come round with a thermos flask of coffee to warm you up.

“One night, I was coming back when I heard a bang. One of the propellors had flown off. We had to turn back to Renfrew and make an emergency landing. There was one VIP airliner. It was Field Marshall Montgomery’s old plane and had a single passenger door and some heating, which was quite a luxury.

“Later on, they replaced the Dakotas with Argonauts. They had three off BOAC. One of them had brought Princess Elizabeth back from Nairobi when her father died.

“Before the airport got the DC3s in the late 60s, it had two Marathons and a d’Havilland Rapide – an eight to 10-seater with two engines. I used to fly to the Channel Islands in the Marathons, which was again quite an experience.

“I remember the DC3, pictured in Bygones, going into the field. I lived in Melbourne then and cycled across to look at it. It came in with a tail wind and went straight through the hedge, across the road and through another hedge into a corn field near Egginton.

“The pilot was Harry Marlow from Long Eaton. No-one was hurt.

“Sadly, another DC3, crossing the ‘magnetic mountain’ near Pergignon, en route for Majorca, was not so lucky. It crashed, I believe, killing nearly everyone on board.”

Aviation enthusiast Bill Manners (66), of Shardlow, also saw the plane overshoot the runway at Burnaston.

Afterwards, he purchased the excellent photographs, pictured above, from the Derby Evening Telegraph after we carried a report about the incident.

“My wife, Valerie, and I had gone up to Burnaston to do some plane-spotting. We used to go on pleasure flights from there up to Hucknall and back. We flew to Ireland once on a Marathon.

“When we arrived, the incident had already happened. I didn’t see it but the plane was still in the field and the police were holding people back as they tried to drag it across the road.

“As far as I know it was on a training flight and had misjudged its landing. Luckily the roads were quite quiet then.”

Dennis Simms, of Little Eaton, also saw the runaway aircraft. He said: “I saw the DC3 at Burnaston just after it had happened. The picture in Bygones shows the aircraft being towed back across Burnaston Lane to the airport.

“Burnaston Lane was the road that led up to the airport main entrance. The aircraft ended up in a cornfield on the Derby side of the road.

“The DC3 of Derby Airways was a nice aircraft. In 1958, I flew in one to Brussels International Exhibition, there and back in a day for £7 10s – cheaper than a low-cost carrier today.”

John Shallcross worked for Derby Aviation and was there at the time of the overshoot incident, according to his brother, Dennis, of Hilcote, Alfreton.

“Unfortunately, he died about two years after his retirement, “ said Dennis. “He had many photos and press cuttings about aircraft, in particular Derby Airways and British Midland. The Dakota DC3 in the picture was G-AGJV.”

Dennis sent in a newspaper cutting about the incident which states that the DC3 “overshot the runway when landing at Burnaston today, crashed through a wire fence at 80mph and hopped across College Lane, Burnaston, finally coming to rest in a cornfield.

“It was raining at the time and a mechanic said he thought the wheels locked on the greasy runway when the brakes were applied, causing the aircraft to ski, thereby upsetting the pilot’s calculations.

“The airliner, which was on a routine training flight, had a crew of two, Captain R Fleming and Captain T Van den Elst. There was no apparent damage and neither of the occupants was injured.”

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