Peak District Air Accident Research

Handley Page Hampden Mk.I L4189 of 106 Squadron RAF from Finningley near Doncaster crashed on Black Edge near Buxton on the 30th September 1940 while on a navigation exercise.

At close to 20:30 on the 30th September 1940 Hampden L4189 left RAF Finningley near Doncaster for a night navigation exercise, the weather that night consisted of 10/10ths low cloud.  The crew became lost shortly after take off, after two hours the pilot began to descend through the cloud to hopefully gain visual contact with the ground, this proved futile as while still in cloud the aircraft ploughed into gently rising ground below the summit of Black Edge.

The crew members who died in the crash were buried at various cemeteries throughout the country, Eric Burt was buried at Edinburgh Liberton Cemetery, below is a photograph of his grave.

Charles Cook was buried at Manchester Southern Cemetery, for a reason that I do not know the exact locations of the individual graves within the war graves plot were not properly recorded. Therefore all the military casualties are commemorated on a memorial adjacent to the now grassed over plot.

Nearly three months after this accident another Hampden from 106 Sqn on a very similar exercise flew into Rushup Edge killing all onboard, this crash site is easily visible from Black Edge.

The small remains of the aircraft on Black Edge.

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