Sunday 16th February 1947, the day a Seafire III crashed into the dining room of the Southern General Hospital with the Pilot – AJ Crawford suffering fatal injuries. The arcraft had taken off from Abbotsinch some 10 minutes before the accident, there were no serious injuries to any of the Hospital patients or staff.

The aircraft engine was buried some distance into the ground, fortunately there was no fire – but the fire service did remain on standby until all the fuel had been drained from the aircraft.

The aircraft NN630 a Seafire III was being tested by the AHU Abbotsinch, the accident was reported in The Scotsman on the 17th of February with a photograph showing the hole in the dining room roof.

The aircraft arrived in the Royal Navy Deposit Account on the10th of February 1945, then went through 39MU and on to RNAS Tambaram before returning to the UK and ending up at RNAS Abbotsinch.

The photograph of a Seafire III above is copyright Mr R C Clarkson of the Scottish Military Aviation Group (SCOTMAG), taken at Duxford 2016.

What to say about Walter “Terry” Bell, for anyone fortunate enough to know him there’s not much that can be added. For those of you who didn’t know him, where to start would be the more appropriate question. Walter was a long time Glasgow spotter, a founding member of the Glasgow Airport Aviation Enthusiasts Club (GAAEC).

Walter spotted at Renfrew and Abbotsinch during and after the second world war, started photographing aircraft in 1948 so as can be imagined he built up quite the collection of photographs. These for the most part were meticulously labeled and cross referenced in his logs, in most cases with quite a bit of additional information.

Walter sadly passed away on the 19th of March, however in typical fashion he ensured that his collection of images was preserved for future generations by gifting the collection the Air Britain Archive.

I for one will miss the odd visit I made to see him and his wife Eileen, where a coffee and a Kit-Kat was always welcome.