de Havilland Moth G-ACGD flew into Broad Law near Tweedsmuir on the 26th September 1936

William Walter Barrie	Mr	Pilot	Killed
Kenneth Crawford	Mr	Passenger	Killed

 

The two men had taken off from a private aerodrome at Macmerry between Tranent and Haddington in East Lothian in an aircraft owned by the Edinburgh Flying Club, who used the airfield as their headquarters. Their intended destination was Kingstown airfield at Carlisle where Kenneth Crawford had been forced to leave another aircraft while returning to Macmerry from Liverpool. This aircraft was described as a Miles Hawk and may have been G-ACXZ which was registered at Macmerry at the time but did not belong to him.

The pair were expected to return on the same day to Macmerry and when neither arrived a member of the flying club called Kingstown and was told that the Moth had not arrived. The disappearance of the aircraft was reported to the Police.

The following morning members of the flying club, along with three other clubs, began an aerial search while others set out to drive as many of the roads through the hills between Edinburgh and Carlisle as possible. At the same time the Police forces in the area had informed their constables that they should look out for the missing aircraft.

During the day a shepherd at Meggethead was stopped by a passing motorist who told him about the missing aircraft, on looking around as the motorist drove away the shepherd spotted the wrecked aircraft close to the summit of Broad Law, having not previously been looking out for anything unusual. He was able to shout after the motorist and point out what he had seen. A small party was then organised to walk up to the summit where they found the aircraft and bodies of the two occupants.

From the position of the crash site it appeared at the time that the aircraft may have been flying in a north easterly direction as if having abandoned the flight to Carlisle due to poor weather but had entered cloud after which they flew into Broad Law. The farmer at Talla Linfoots to the south of Broad Law had seen an aircraft fly over in the direction of the hill at about 17:00 on the day the aircraft went missing, and about 2.5 hours after it had left Macmerry.