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THE British Argonaut aircraft, with the letters BM (British Midland) still fainlty visible, after it had been ravaged by fire.
THE British Argonaut aircraft, with the letters BM (British Midland) still fainlty visible, after it had been ravaged by fire.

Miracle that more weren't killed


6/ 6/2007

A REMARKABLE factor of the Stockport Air Disaster is that there were no fatalities on the ground.

In 1967 the area around Hopes Carr was densely populated with homes, workshops and businesses.

But somehow the pilot, Captain Harry Marlow, managed to steer the Canadair C-4 Argonaut away from flats, houses and a gasometer to crash land at Hopes Carr.

Knowing the plane was in trouble over a built up area, he managed to steer the aircraft towards the safest landing strip he could find.

Bringing the aircraft perilously close to houses on Upper Brook Street - the aeroplane's vortex ripped slates off roofs - Captain Marlow managed to avoid hitting most residential homes.

But fortunately the wing did clip the last house on its approach to Hopes Carr, swinging the plane away from Hempshaw Brook valley.

Rescuer Brian Donohoe remembers this as a stroke of luck.

"The pilot was looking for a place to come down and saw Woodbank Park. But there was an event on and people all over it," he recalled.

"He managed to get a bit of lift but started to come down again when he saw Hopes Carr, which in June must have looked like a lovely green strip.

"But it's actually a valley. The one bit of luck we had is that the wing clipped the last house on the approach and swung the plane round to where it landed.

"If we would have had to go down that valley we wouldn't have got the 12 out."

The resulting accident inquiry absolved Captain Marlow of any wrong doing in the crash.

The aeroplane was found to have experienced engine failure, caused by a fault in the fuel system.

Similar problems with Argonaut aeroplanes had been reported before but never with such devastating consequences.


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Most recent 1 of 1 user comments

   I was a 13 year old schooboy cycling to my Grandmothers on that fateful Sunday morning, as I turned left off the A6 near the old Infirmary I saw the aircraft drop and collide by the wingtip and dissapear into the valley. I franticaly rode to the spot to find local shop folk risking life and limb to get people out .Bits of the front of the cockpit had shot accross the road to the nearby car dealers, people were stuck in the aircraft screaming for help which never came after the explosion of the fuel tanks shortly after the Fire Brigade arrived and tried to hack thier way in, searing memories that will never leave me, I hope they never move the tribute spot from its original position, there are more useful development sites for Buisness and Housing within 1000 metres of this memorial to departed traveling folk.
Eric Taylor, Bredbury
18/06/2007 at 15:44
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