ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 73531
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| Date: | Wednesday 24 May 1933 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: |  de Havilland DH.60G Gipsy Moth |
| Owner/operator: | Irish Aero Club |
| Registration: | EI-AAH |
| MSN: | 1808 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Irish Sea, near Muglins Lighthouse, off Dalkey Island, County Dublin -
 Ireland
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Baldonnel Aerodrome, near Dublin (EIME) |
c/no 1808: DH.60G [Gipsy I] registered G-ABGL [C of R 2908] 30.11.30 to Brian Lewis & C.D. Barnard Ltd, Heston. C of A 2865 issued 27.1.31. Re-registered [C of R 3244] 30.6.31 to Mrs Linda Beatrice Rhodes-Moorhouse, Heston [but returned and replaced by G-ABOA]. Re-registered [C of R 3333] once again 29.7.31 to Brian Lewis & C.D. Barnard Ltd, Heston. Registration cancelled as sold 31.1.32. Re-registered in Ireland as EI-AAH 24.8.31 to Irish Aero Club, Baldonnel.
Written off 24.5.33: Aircraft left Baldonnel Airport near Dublin for a regional round trip. While cruising off the Dalkey Island, southeast of Dublin, the single engine aircraft went out of control when it failed to recover from a low-level loop, and crashed in the Irish Sea, near the Muglins Lighthouse, off Dalkey Island, County Dublin; pilot Major Sam Dunckley and passenger Edward D Clayson killed. According to one published source (see link #9)
"...at 7.30 pm on Wednesday the 24th May 1933 Dunckley set out again from Baldonnel Aerodrome, this time piloting a de Havilland Moth plane, with a Gypsy engine. With him was a 33-year-old passenger, Edward Clayson, a London based commercial traveller who Dunckley was treating to a short leisure flight over Dublin. Having flown west over South Dublin, the machine was seen at 8pm circling over Dalkey Harbour before tragedy struck.
The plane was observed ‘doing several loops’ until it could loop no more. It violently, and unintentionally, entered the water at Mullings near Dalkey Island. Hundreds of people out walking that evening around the harbour saw the plane nosedive and plunge into the sea. Wreckage was strewn across the water. The gaze of the general and growing public was affixed on the harbour for several hours. The Kingstown life boat was dispatched and numerous small craft, out sailing in the bay that evening, assisted with the immediate search and rescue operation. The Major was promptly found floating on the surface of the water. He was brought to Kingstown Hospital, where on arrival life was declared extinct. He was 45 years old.
Initial reports suggested the plane may have belonged to Osmonde ‘Ossie’ Esmonde, T.D, a member of the chamber in the Free State Assembly and a founding member of the Irish Aero Club, and clearly a very good friend indeed to Dunckley who regularly borrowed his plane. The main body of the plane rapidly sank to the sea bed. When the cabin of the aeroplane was found and recovered three days later by local fishermen assisting with the search, the body of 33-year-old Clayson was found intact, strapped and still sitting in his chair. He had died by drowning. It was the first and last time Mr. Clayson had ever been in an aeroplane. His remains were brought by mail boat from Kingstown to Holyhead the following Monday morning, accompanied by his brother who had travelled to Ireland to identify him. With the recovery of the fuselage, much to the relief of Ossie Esmonde T.D., it was established that the plane was registered, EI-AAH, to the Irish Aero Club. It was only the 8th civil aeroplane to be registered in Ireland.
Two weeks after the tragedy on the 6th June, a meeting was held in the Town Hall in Dun Laoghaire where it was proposed that ‘A fund should be raised’. A committee was quickly established, and, as is the Irish way, then a subcommittee – A ‘Ways and Means’ subcommittee to establish and raise the fund through subscriptions. The fund was established, not to assist the families of the deceased, as one might have expected, but to support the Dalkey Fishermen who had voluntarily given their time and service in the recovery of the aeroplane and the remains of Major Dunckley and Mr. Clayson.
It was the first fatal accident in civil aviation in the Free State. It could have been so much sooner. It was also sadly, the first of four fatal air crashes that summer.
At the funeral of Major Samuel Dunckley, his coffin was borne into the Church on the shoulders of members of the Irish Aero Club, as two planes from the club circled in the sky over Mount Jerome, dipping their wings to salute the dead airman. Lady Heath, assistant manager of Iona National Airways, with members of the Aero Club, flew over the cemetery during the burial.
At the inquest for Major Dunckley, it was ascertained that the plane had been inspected immediately prior to Dunckley departing Baldonnel, and had been adjudged to be in perfect mechanical order. The accident was put down to ‘An error in human judgement’’.
Dalkey Island is an island for which the nearby village of Dalkey is named (Irish: Oileán Dheilginse meaning "thorn island"). It is an uninhabited island located in the county of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, about 16 km (9.9 miles) south of Dublin and 3 km (1.9 mi) south of Dún Laoghaire harbour.
Sources:
1. 70 Years of the Irish Civil Aircraft Register
by P J Hornfeck
BN Historians 1999
2. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_EI-.html
3. As G-ABGL: https://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/page-gb-registers-g-ab/g-ab-part-1?highlight=WyJnLWFiZ2wiXQ==
4. AS EI-AAH: https://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/page-gb-registers-g-ab/g-ab-part-1?highlight=WyJlaS1hYWgiXQ==
4. https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/HistoricalMaterial/G-ABGL.pdf
5. http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1934.htm
6. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-de-havilland-dh60g-gipsy-moth-dalkey-island-2-killed
7. https://ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/dh60.pdf
8. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/p018.html
9. https://arambleabouttallaght.blogspot.com/2020/12/an-error-in-human-judgement.html
10. https://www.irishlights.ie/tourism/our-lighthouses/muglins.aspx
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalkey_Island
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 21-Mar-2010 03:49 | John Baker | Added |
| 09-Jan-2014 19:34 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 06-Jan-2017 19:01 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 25-Jun-2020 15:14 | Sergey L. | Updated [Source] |
| 21-Nov-2023 07:22 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative, Category] |
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