In poor visibility the four-engined American transport plane crashed into houses on approach, killing 25 people. Correction: At 0:26 it should be 'United States Army Air Force' rather than 'United States Air Force.'
Many years ago I learned from an elderly friend that he lived there at the time. The plane took the the corner off the roof of his elderly neighbours house. He hurriedly got dressed and went out to help. After a long night he returned home to find that he had his feet in the wrong boots! So excited was he that he failed to notice. The old couple that the plane took off the corner of their roof slept through it all!
Military crashes in wartime do not usually gather Much attention unless there is a high profile injury/fatality Historical correction The United States Air Force didn’t exist until 1947, the correct operating body would be the United States ARMY air force .
I lived in Prestwick from 1970 to 2000, went to school less than a quarter of a mile away from the crash site and I'd never heard of this. Obviously, countless people had been dying around that time in air raids and in the war (although curiously I've never heard of there being air raids on Prestwick either, in spite of its airfields), but it's still a tragic story. Hillside Avenue no longer connects with Berelands Road, it's now Hillside Crescent off Berelands Avenue, so between the dead end in the Crescent and Berelands Road must be where the destroyed houses stood. It looks like 48 and 50 Berelands Road (although 52 and 54 are also newer than the rest) and 4, 5 and 6 Hillside Crescent were built in their place. I wonder if the folk who live in these houses nowadays know about the crash and how their houses came to be...
Hillside Crescent links into Boydfield Avenue. What was Hillside Avenue became an extension of Boydfield Avenue to link to Berelands Road after the plane crashed.
Just come across this site and looked at all your videos to date. I look forward to more as they are so interesting. Despite living in Scotland for almost 70 years, I had never heard of any of the incidents. I'm guessing you are from the east of Scotland as most are from there. I wonder if, at the time of these incidents, newspapers in the west of Scotland (where I am from) picked up these stories or not. Thanks again for an interesting time.
Flying was an extremely hazardous activity in the 30,40 and 50's , with numerous crashes , and usually with commercial aircraft total fatalities. The weather was the main cause of a disastrous conclusion , storm clouds capable of tearing the wings off planes. Also more common , pilots complete environmental unawareness , getting lost. Some idea of how bad it was can be seen from these figures published by the US government. During WW2 aircraft losses outside of the United States totaled 44000 , of which 21000 were none combatant. In 1944 in the Pacific a squadron of US Marine F4U Corsairs , detailed to relocate on another island , encountered heavy rain . Of the 23 aircraft only one found dry land , the others all ditched in the sea drowning five pilots. About the same time in Burma a RAF squadron of Spitfires entered a cloud and none came out. Scotsman Capt Eric Brown relates his experience of flying into a storm cloud in a Spitfire , and describes it as being one of the most terrifying of his illustrious career.
