ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 300193
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| Date: | Monday 24 September 1917 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: |  Avro 504J |
| Owner/operator: | Royal Flying Corps (RFC) |
| Registration: | C4443 |
| MSN: | 5419 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Queens Road/Cecilia Road, Clarendon Park, Leciester, Leicestershire -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | |
| Victoria Park, Leicester |
Avro 504J C4443: Crashed on to a house at the corner of Cecila Road and Queens Road, Clarendon Park, Leicester. Pilot injured. According to a local newspaper report ("Leicester Mercury" 25 September 2017):
"The quiet, middle class, brick villas of Leicester’s Clarendon Park must have seemed a million miles from the chaos of the First World War – that was until a century ago yesterday, when a machine of war came crashing down from the sky upon it.
This dramatic photograph has lingered in our archive for many years now, with no proper surviving caption: not even the exact date it was taken – just “about 1917 or 1918”. Vintage plane spotters had identified it as a British Avro 504J biplane, used as a training aircraft. The Avro 504 was the most-produced aircraft of any kind that served in the First World War, in any military capacity, during that conflict.
But, there is doubt about its serial number: in 2003, it was identified as C4443, according to the RAF Museum at Hendon, London. However, in 2010, a reader wrote to the Mercury stating that the biplane was “confirmed officially as an Avro 504K, serial number F4443”.
Nonetheless, he managed to date the crash as taking place on September 24, 1917. All that said, under a magnifying glass, the painted number actually looks more like D4443!
Anyway, the aircraft crashed on a loft in the backyard of G Swanns, painter and decorator’s shop, at the corner of Queens Road and Cecilia Road, Clarendon Park. Dr Helen Boynton’s 2003 book, Knighton and Clarendon Park, reveals that the pilot was a local man, Army officer Ernest Wright, who survived the crash, but broke his leg and subsequently walked with a limp. It was thought that he was possibly trying to land on nearby Victoria Park, Leicester."
Sources:
1. Dr Helen Boynton’s 2003 book, "Knighton and Clarendon Park"
2. https://leicestershire-aviation.co.uk/aircraft-crashes-force-landings-in-leicestershire/
3. https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/history/mam-theres-aeroplane-crashed-backyard-527039
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 25-Oct-2022 15:48 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
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