Amy Johnson.
Pioneering aviatrix Amy Johnson died on this day in the service of the British Transport Auxiliary, the British air ferrying service that was created in order to allow civilian pilots, including women, preform this service during war time.
She was flying an Airspeed Oxford in poor weather when it went off course and is generally believed to have run out of fuel. She bailed out over the Thames Estuary and was sighted descending by vessels of the Royal Navy, which went to help. She was sighted in the water in heavy seas and the commander of one of the vessels, Lt. Cmdr Walter Fletcher went over the side to rescue her but was unable to, soon becoming unconscious himself. He died a few days later. Her body was not recovered.
Her loss remains controversial in the UK. In 1999 a crewman of a wartime anti aircraft batter claimed his gun had shot her down when she had failed to reply to an identification signal and that the crew had believed they had shot down an enemy aircraft until they read of her death the following day, at which time an officer ordered them not to speak of the event. That's possible, but in my view unlikely as the claim of a hit would have been made at the time and likely records of it might still remain.
And a crewman of the ship that was nearest to her claimed many years later that she was sucked into the ship's screw which killed her, although the crewman did not witness it. Given the way that ships generally work and the depth of the screws, that's also quite unlikely.
In any event, two heroes, Johnson and Fletcher, who lost their lives that day.
More on events of this day including the Commonwealth victory in Bardia.
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