Monday, 6 January 2025

The Amy Johnson mystery

 Into thick freezing fog on January 5th, 1941, Amy Johnson takes off from Blackpool airport, never to be seen again. The mystery of what happened to Britain’s most famous woman flyer has never been properly explained.

The flight was a routine delivery of an Airspeed Oxford aircraft to Kidlington airbase near Oxford. For someone who had flown solo to Australia and Cape Town in South Africa a very routine flight.

Around 4 hours later the wreckage of her aircraft is found in the River Thames about 100 miles off course. There are many conspiracy theories regarding what happened to her.

Was she flying a spy out of the country? Was she accidently shot down by British anti-aircraft guns? More probably without modern navigation aids she simply lost her bearings in a thick fog bank and her aircraft crashes. Her body is never found.

One report suggests that HMS Haslemere a mobile barrage balloon vessel spotted a parachutist in the River Thames Estuary, they did not know who the parachutist was, but despite rescue ropes being thrown out to the person they were too cold to grasp the ropes and drown.

So, the mystery of what happened to Amy Johnson on that cold foggy January 5th 1941 remains today.


                                                     www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

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