Sixtieth anniversary of Farnborough Air Disaster which killed six young people

IT’S been 60 years since six young people from Coventry and Warwickshire died and two others were injured in the Farnborough Air Disaster.

It has been 60 years since the Farnborough Air Disaster claimed the lives of six young people from Coventry and Warwickshire and injured two more.

Residents of the city were stunned to learn of the catastrophe on September 6, 1952, when those who had traveled to the exhibition in Hampshire did not come home.

A prototype DH 110 Jet Fighter broke the sound barrier and crashed into the sky, killing four adults from Coventry and one youngster from Kenilworth instantaneously.

On that day, around 120,000 people attended the display from the prototype jet, and as pieces of the aircraft crashed to the ground, 31 individuals lost their lives, including the pilot and a flight test observer.

Many more suffered injuries.

Peter Clifford, 18, of Terry Road, Stoke, Dennis Staples, 16, of Whoberley Avenue, Whoberley, Cedwin Staples, 21, of Northumberland Road, Spon End, Ann Crofts, 16, of Wren Street, Hillfields, and Jill Huntley, 17, of Willowmere, Park Hill, Kenilworth were among those who died instantaneously.

Jill went to the air show with a group of four members of the Styvechale Youth Fellowship.

The remaining individuals were among the fifty-eight Armstrong Whitworth employees and their companions who had journeyed from Coventry to attend the occasion.

A sixth individual, 23-year-old Peter Staples of Northumberland Road, Spon End, was hospitalized due to various injuries including a shattered head.

His wounds ultimately claimed his life.

Alongside him receiving treatment at the Cambridge Military Hospital were his buddy Daniel Harty, 21, of Wildcroft Road, Whoberley, and his brother Brian Staples, 18, of Whoberley Avenue.

The trip to the air show was arranged by Armstrong Whitworth, one of the largest employers in Coventry at the time and a significant player in the aviation sector.

John Derry, the jet fighter’s pilot, was trying to straighten the aircraft when the outer section of the starboard wing failed and came off, causing the disaster.

A abrupt shift in gravity resulted in the plane rearing up so forcefully that the two engines tore loose, the tailplane tore off, and the cockpit broke off.

Eyewitnesses reportedly reported that the hit caused bodies to be flung into the air as the components dropped into the gathering of people below.

Two days after arriving to the event by motorcycle, Mr. and Mrs. Cornwall of Kingsland Avenue, Chapelfields, told the Telegraph, “We were quite enjoying the day until those terrible few seconds.”

The DH 110 descended faster than sound and crossed the drome at a rather high altitude. As it approached where we were standing on its return, we saw the tailplane’s strut take off. The entire aircraft appeared to have disintegrated in midair a second later.

Following the collision, people on Whoberley Avenue banded together to collect money for the Staples family, who had lost three members, and local members of parliament also conveyed condolences.