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The Rooftop Dakota
On 19th December 1946, a Dakota plane crashed onto the roof of a house in Angus Drive, near Northholt Aerodrome in Middlesex...
Over the past three weeks, Home Truths has followed the story of the rooftop Dakota. First Irene Zigmund, whose house it was, told us of the incredible escape of herself and her 4-month old-son David, who was asleep in his cot upstairs when the plane landed on the house. Next, the air hostess, Bobby Pilbrow, and the son of one of the passengers on the plane, John Livingstone, got in touch with us, to tell us their bit of the story.
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 The Dakota - nose first
And to round things off nicely, this week, Audrey Hawkridge emailed us to tell us how she and two of her friends stood transfixed as the Dakota appeared to be flying straight for the window in the upstairs office where they worked at the British European Airways headquarters. "But," said Audrey, "the Dakota gave a nerve-racking little wobble upward, and scooped itself in a painful sort of limp over our roof..." It crashed a few hundred yards away. Incredibly no-one was hurt.
Our thanks to Maurice Wickstead, from Newton Abbot, who told us about the existence of the dramatic photographs of the Dakota after it had ploughed its way into the rooftop of 46 Angus Drive. The house, by the way, is called 'Dakota's Rest'.
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