In reply especially to Jonathan Carne's query (posted on 2/11/2010) about pictures of the above crash in which his father, Rodney Reuben Carne, sadly died, my son Peter recently came upon the following website with four photos.
http://www.alamy.com then search: B52M2K
this will show the main photo with thumbnails of the other three below it.
if that fails, an alternative route to the same page is:
http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-the-scene-of-the-de-havilland-rapide-crash-at-the-shopping-centre-20343307
I would have been only just one year old at the time of the crash and have lived in Wallington all my life and remember my parents telling me of a plane crash in Wallington but assumed (I think) that it was during the last war. I'm interested in transport of all types, having owned a preserved ex-London Transport bus since 1970 and in more recent years have become interested in local history.
Living near Roundshaw Park as a boy, my mates and I used to play in the long grass just inside the delapidated wire-mesh fences of Croydon Airport but kept well away from the Tiger Moth trainers that were landing and taking off at that time! We were never challenged by anyone but if it could happen today would no doubt have been spotted on CCTV and the armed anti-terrorist squad called!
One of the newspaper cuttings mentions that Rodney Carne lived at Cuckoo Hill Road, Pinner at the time, the same road as some good friends of mine who were some of the founders of the Cobham Bus Museum were living in the late 60's/early 70's - small world!