Date:	Saturday 25 May 1940
Time:	morning
Type:	Blackburn Botha Mk I
Owner/operator:	3 FPP (Ferry Pilots Pool), Air Transport Auxiliary
Registration:	L6160
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Layton Road, Horsforth, West Yorkshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Ferry/positioning
Departure airport:	Brough Aerodrome, East Yorkshire (EGNB)
Destination airport:	RAF Silloth, Cumberland

Narrative:
On 24th May 1940 this aircraft was being ferried from Brough airfield near Hull, to Silloth airfield, near Carlisle. The pilot encountered poor weather not long after taking off and made a landing at Yeadon airfield. Because of the poor weather he remained on the ground at Yeadon for the rest of that day and stayed the night there. On 25th May 1940 the weather appears to have improved so he took off again to continue the flight.

Not long after taking off from Yeadon he was flying in the Horsforth area and flying in cloud, realising he was flying towards two houses on a hill he made a banked turn to the right but collided with a drystone wall. The pilot sadly died in this accident in the Layton Road area.

One of two proposed routes for a new road to link the A65 to the Leeds-Bradford airport would cut through this crash site.

Crew: 1st Officer John Taverner Wilson Clark (pilot) ATA - killed on active service. Aged 28. Buried at Aireborough (Yeadon) Cemetery, Yorkshire (sec. E/842).

John T.W. Clark was the second ATA pilot to be killed on active service. Note that the inscription on his grave marker gives his date of birth as "1910", which would make him 30 (not 28) years of age.

Botha L6160 was built to contract 563935 by The Blackburn Aeroplane Company Ltd. at Brough and was awaiting collection in September 1939. It was flown to 22 MU at Silloth (ASU) and placed into storage. It was later issued to 1 (C)OTU also at Silloth on 1st April 1940 when the unit formed. On the date it crashed it was technically in the charge of 3 FPP when it crashed near Leeds and Cat. W/FA damage was recorded following assessment

1. http://www.raf-lichfield.co.uk/ATA%20Casualties.htm
2. http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/yorkshire/york40/l6160.html
3. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2406259/clark,-john-taverner-wilson/
4. http://www.afleetingpeace.org/the-ata/index.php/9-lists/1-ata-men-1939
5. Air Yorkshire magazine July 2025 p.3: https://magazines.airyorkshire.org.uk/Air.Yorkshire.July.2025.pdf
6. https://www.baaa-acro.com/index.php/crash/crash-blackburn-b-26-botha-i-horsforth-1-killed
7. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/224891746/john_taverner_wilson-clark
8. https://forum.rafcommands.com/forum/unaccounted-airmen-and-airwomen-project/1940/23624-1940-unaccounted-airmen-database-reconciliation?p=222410#post222410
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsforth

No photo has been found of Blackburn Botha L6160. However, the photo below is of Botha L6162 a near identical aircraft, just two places further down the production line:

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
02-Feb-2013 07:45	PKM	Added
09-Aug-2013 05:04	JINX	Updated [Operator, Location, ]
01-Oct-2013 07:30	angels one five	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative, ]
19-Oct-2018 19:28	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Operator, ]
12-May-2019 14:39	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ]
26-May-2019 04:31	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, ]
01-Aug-2024 09:23	Nepa	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Narrative, Operator, ]
18-Jul-2025 15:40	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Source, Embed code, Narrative, Category, ]