Railway Air Services Dakota Crash, 1946

The crash of the Douglas Dakota 3, servicing Scottish Airways at the time, occurred on the 19th of December. Despite the aircraft being a member of the fleet of Railway Air Services, which usually only flew domestic routes, the route the aircraft took was from Northolt Airport (now RAF Northolt), West London to Renfrew Airport in Glasgow.

On board the aircraft registered as G-AGZA were 4 crew and 1 passenger. Prior to departure, the aircraft had been de-iced, however while waiting to take off, snow had settled on the wings and frozen once again. After waiting an hour for clearance, the plane was finally allowed to depart.

As Captain Johnson accelerated down the runway at Northolt, he noticed that he was not gaining any height. This was due to disrupted airflow due to the build-up of ice on the wings. It was too late to abort the departure, so in an attempt to climb, the aircraft flew at an extremely low altitude of just several metres down a residential street, Angus Drive, located less than a kilometre from the airport, and came to rest on the roofs of no. 44 and 46.

Thankfully, all passengers, crew and residents survived with no injuries, though the aircraft was wholly destroyed, and there was damage to the houses on Angus Drive. The radio officer, who was not in his seat on impact, was lucky to survive, as had he been seated, some metalwork would have likely been pushed into him, causing severe injuries. Irene Zigmund and her son, who lived at number 44 were completely unscathed, with 4 month old David not waking at all.

The snow on the wings which caused the aircraft to fail to gain height was determined to be the cause of the incident. However, Captain Johnson was also found partly to blame, as he did not abort the take-off when he was able to.

Number 46 on Angus Drive is known as “Dakota’s Rest”, as this is the house in which the passenger and crew exited the aircraft through the roof of the house. Captain Johnson was also nicknamed “Rooftop Johnson” due to the location of his crash landing.

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