404 Flight April 1930

[JimCorbett1977]

Hi Col,

Sorry that was a typo on my part and the link is to an old post of mine. I am now trying to fill in some of the blanks with regards the units movements before the crash.

A recent visit to the National Archives confirmed the flight disembarking HMS Courageous much earlier in the month than I was anticipating. There appears to be no records for Croydon or Turnhouse and Donibristle records are poor. I also checked the Leuchars records for the period, and there is no mention of 404 Flight arriving there.

The timeline of events, assuming the newspapers are correct, seems to suggest that after heading north to Donibristle on 7th April, they returned south to Croydon at some point and then returned north to Edinburgh. It was during the return that the incidents on 22nd and 23rd April occurred.

Breaking the timeline down I have the following:

Thursday, 30th January 1930 - Disembarked HMS Courageous, arrived Gosport

Monday, 7th April 1930 - Flew north to Donibristle

Tuesday, 22nd April 1930? - Flight of three flew north to Edinburgh from Croydon, N9679 landed at Falstone, Northumberland with engine trouble.

Wednesday, 23rd April 1930? - Two aircraft returned to Falstone with spare parts, one of these aircraft crashed on landing and damaged the undercarriage. The third aircraft, possibly N9917, took off again and returned to Edinburgh

404 Flight returned to Gosport on 23rd September 1930 when they embarked HMS Courageous after its refit.

I am wondering if the newspaper dates are wrong and the incident happened on the way to Donibristle earlier in the month.