Daily Express Newspaper

De Havilland DH.90 Dragonfly

The twin engine aircraft was used to prove a safe air route from Glasgow-Renfrew to Liverpool-Speke under the sponsorship (and ownership) of the Daily Express in an unofficial response to a report by the Maybury Air Committee into the opening up of routes linking various British cities. The aircraft left Glasgow-Renfrew Airport and headed south to Liverpool but nothing further was heard and when it failed to arrive at its destination, a SAR operation was started. A local resident found the debris on a hill two days later, near the Clatteringshaws Reservoir, some 16 miles southwest of Newton Stewart. All four occupants were killed and the aircraft was destroyed. Crew: Leslie T. Jackson, pilot, Archibald Francis Phillpot, radio operator. Passengers: Harold J. Pemberton, journalist for the Daily Express, Reginald Charles Wesley, photographer for the Daily Express.