The house was re-christened ‘Dakota’s Rest!’
Bill Innes, a retired airline pilot with more than 40 years of flying experience, had the seemingly impossible dream of becoming a pilot as a young boy growing up in the Outer Hebrides. His book Flight from the Croft tells how that dream came to pass.
After gaining his RAF wings in Canada, Innes started to learn his trade by flying pre-war C-47 Dakotas for British European Airways (BEA) around the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
According to Innes, the C-47’s durability throughout the war saved many airmen’s lives. It is effectively demonstrated by a remarkable incident that took place on December 14, 1946. BEA’s services between Northolt and Scotland were initially run by Railway Air Services in collaboration with Scottish Airways when it became a crown corporation on August 1 of that year.
The Dakota G-AGZA was scheduled to fly to Glasgow on the day in question under the leadership of Captain W.J. Johnson, with co-pilot “Bing” Crosby, radio officer Hugh Murdoch, and Robina “Bobbie” Christie, Scottish Airways’ first stewardess. All passengers had been discouraged by the blizzard, which also prevented landings, with the exception of John Livingstone, a staff member who had work in Glasgow waiting for him.
The aircraft had been cleared of snow and ice, but as they taxied out, the temperature dropped again, and the longer they waited to take off, the more snow may have frozen onto the wings. The direction of departure was to the east, and it was soon apparent that ZA was having difficulty ascending. It swung to the left and came to rest perched precariously on the ruins of the roof of the nearby 46 Angus Drive after colliding with the roof of a new semi-detached house with its port wing.
When the radio officer and the stewardess moved to the back to try to unlock the passenger door, ZA started to lean. They hastily abandoned that plan and instead escaped through the emergency windows above the wing. From there, they navigated the wreckage of the loft before descending the stairs and leaving by the front door.
Surprisingly, no one was harmed. Mr. and Mrs. Levene, a newlywed couple, had not yet moved in, so the home itself was vacant. Despite ZA’s load of aviation gasoline, the Northolt fire crew responded quickly to put out any raging fires. A four-month-old infant was unharmed and is thought to have slept through the commotion in the upstairs bedroom of Number 44.
The most incredible escape, however, was made by Radio Officer Hugh Murdoch. He had a bad habit of standing between the pilot seats during takeoff to look out the windshield on those more laid-back occasions. Not only did he escape the collision unharmed, but when he turned to check at his own seat, a port propeller blade was poking through. It is quite improbable that he would have lived if he had been restrained as required by the rules.
Despite holding a senior training position in BEA, Captain Johnson continued to be referred to as “Rooftops” Johnson for the remainder of his professional life. Even when repairs were finished in six months, oil stains kept resurfacing in the ceilings for the following 10 years, suggesting that the removal of ZA may have caused more damage than the collision itself. The residence was given the new name “Dakota’s Rest”!
Photo by Whittles Publishing
