Date:	Thursday 20 April 1939
Time:	day
Type:	Handley Page Hampden Mk I
Owner/operator:	144 Sqn RAF
Registration:	L4136
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	South Farm, Sunk Island, Holderness, near Hull, East Yorkshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Hemswell, Heapham, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Handley Page Hampden L4136: Written off (destroyed) on Thursday, 20th April 1939. This 144 Squadron aircraft took off from Hemswell with the pilot detailed to fly a solo practice flight. Approaching from the direction of the mouth of The Humber the pilot was attempting to force land the aircraft in fields at Sunk Island but stalled, the aircraft spun and then dived into a dyke near South Farm. The pilot was sadly killed.

While a witness believed the aircraft's engines to have been working normally it was thought that one had in fact failed prior to the crash. A wing flap or bomb door was found some three miles from the crash site.

Crew:
Pilot - Pilot Officer Charles Edward Jones RAF, aged 26. Canadian. Buried St. Chad Churchyard, Harpswell, Lincolnshire.

According to the official Air Ministry announcement in "Flight" magazine (April 27, 1939 page 423 - see link #5):

"FLYING ACCIDENTS
P/O Charles Edward Jones (flying solo) lost his life in an accident which occurred near Hull on April 20 to an aircraft of No. 144 Squadron".

Charles Jones was from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He was granted a short service commission in the RAF as Acting Pilot Officer on probation on 5th September 1937 and was later graded as Pilot Officer on 12th July 1938.

Sunk Island is a Crown Estate village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies 3+1⁄2 miles (6 km) south of Ottringham and 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north of the Humber Estuary. The Greenwich Meridian passes through the east of the parish

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000-N9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983)
2. http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1939.htm
3. https://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/yorkshire/yorkp39/l4136.html
4. Bomber crash at Sunk Island The Hull Times, Hull, 22.4.39 page 2
5. (paywall) https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1939/1939%20-%201232.PDF
6. National Archives (PRO Kew) 144 Sqn ORB for the period 1 January 1937 to 31 December 1940: File AIR27/980 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2503619
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_Island

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
26-Mar-2018 21:39	Dr. John Smith	Added
26-Mar-2018 22:04	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Total occupants, Source, Narrative, ]
17-Oct-2018 05:30	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator, ]
07-Jul-2023 20:47	Nepa	Updated
13-Aug-2025 06:05	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative, Category, ]