Old Photos of Liverpool

[ian531]

Hi

I found this on Flickr, quite a few old photos from around Liverpool

Maybe of interest to some on here

www.flickr.com/photos/62532775@N03/albums

Ian

[viscount]

In the first of the 'Airports' collections, there is a photo of G-AHET a Percival Vega Gull being rather crudely lifted by a crane out on a large open field as the consequence of a forced landing. The location is Brookfield Lane School Playing Fields, Kirkby - date 2nd May 1960. Damage was sustained to port wing and undercarriage during the forced landed and likely more on being lifted! The aircraft ran out of fuel en route Shoreham to Barton. Didn't think I've ever see a photo of that one! Aircraft was written off on inspection at Barton and the remains eventually burnt there.

Shame there are not any Liverpool Airport shots that I could identify as such, given so many shots of cranes in action on Liverpool streets.




The Cessna 310 which has suffered a 'wheels-up' landing is certainly not Speke. The winged 'W' logo was that of Williams Air Charter of York, who operated from Leeds/Bradford Airport. There is a July '67 colour photo of G-ASSZ, which is a Riley 65 conversion of the basic Cessna 310, at Speke in those colours on probably the only visit it made to Speke (On the 1967 post of: derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/27502/colour-photos-speke-airport-mid ).

G-ASSZ was registered May '64, and was cancelled as sold in Denmark as OY-DRH February 1969. So either it is not G-ASSZ, but another Cessna 310 of Williams Air Charter - British Independent Airlines says that they had 3: G-ASNS (w/o in Bombay 8.6.64), G-ASSZ (sold 12.67 to new owners) and G-ASYV in service when the company ceased trading end of 1968.

Having now taken the time to actually read the entry for Williams Air Charter Ltd in 'British Independent Airlines since 1946, Vol.4' (MAS 1977) not just quote from the fleet list, I have found the answer was there all along: "The Airline's Riley 65 (G-ASSZ) had been out of service for much of 1966 after suffering an undercarriage collapse at the end of a Certificate of Airworthiness test flight on 22nd March 1966 at Teesside Airport."

So a date and place for both images.