Heston: wartime crashes and incidents
Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: torbay devon
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
As suggested by A30yoyo.... I thought I would start a Heston wartime crashes thread, as there a few interesting ones coming out of the woodwork.
To kick off, here is an account found on the net
and a slightly different version of the same incident, also googled
Can anyone add anything? were there casualties or not? Where actually did it crash? There was always a local rumour that a B17 had crashed and damaged the house that still stands on the corner of Fern Lane and North Hyde Lane (th ehouse has a distinctive scar in the rendering on the side wall), but I had always dismissed this assuming people were confusing it with the Gaston Riggs Mustang that hit Grange Farm house and would have been a approach from the same direction but slightly to the south.
Can anyone add anything?
Do you know of any other incident in or around Heston??
To kick off, here is an account found on the net
and a slightly different version of the same incident, also googled
Can anyone add anything? were there casualties or not? Where actually did it crash? There was always a local rumour that a B17 had crashed and damaged the house that still stands on the corner of Fern Lane and North Hyde Lane (th ehouse has a distinctive scar in the rendering on the side wall), but I had always dismissed this assuming people were confusing it with the Gaston Riggs Mustang that hit Grange Farm house and would have been a approach from the same direction but slightly to the south.
Can anyone add anything?
Do you know of any other incident in or around Heston??
ammunition was exploding in the fire , I have many memories of events at the airfield having lived in Wentworth road and having a view of the airport from my back bedroom window , this would be the B17 the crash at Fern Lane ...
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Somewhere flat
Posts: 158
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Worcester
Posts: 34
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The P51 in the picture is the right model, right Fighter group, right everything etc and I was told by an eyewitness to the aftermath of the crash when researching this about 7 years ago that he remembers seeing "Ticket Home or Journey Home" or something very similar painted on the crashed P51 which of course was sadly ironic. So it seemed that it was quite likely that this was the aircraft. However the website Little Friends suggests that this aircraft was written off in another un related crash, flown at the time by the pilot in the picture. So not so sure now!
We also now believe that the pilot in the first picture isn't Gaston Riggs, although it is his wife Minnie, and is one of a few pictures taken by Riggs when on furlough back in the US shortly before returning to convert to fighters in early 44 and his subsequent crash.
We also now believe that the pilot in the first picture isn't Gaston Riggs, although it is his wife Minnie, and is one of a few pictures taken by Riggs when on furlough back in the US shortly before returning to convert to fighters in early 44 and his subsequent crash.
