Fate Deals you a funny hand sometimes….

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THE YORKSHIRE POST, TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1938

HULL YOUTH KILLED IN
AIR MISHAP
250ft, FALL FROM MACHINE
R.A.F. ACCIDENTS

Was ‘Unlucky Alf’ from The Fast Show from Hull..? Maybe this was a relative of his:

“Oh, b****r!”

Yep, Ironic off her album Jagged Little Pill. The line is ‘and as the plane crashed down he thought “well isn’t this nice'”.

I laugh every time I hear that song, purely and simply that she doesn’t understand irony! Not a jot of it is ironic.

Nearly happened to my father…he was in the back of a Swordfish, about to take off from a carrier, and couldn’t connect the Monkey Chain for some reason. He tapped the pilot on the shoulder to alert him of the problem….pilot took that to mean OK to go….and father and Swordfish nearly parted company much to his alarm.

Alanis Morissette wrote a song along this theme!

Yep, Ironic off her album Jagged Little Pill. The line is ‘and as the plane crashed down he thought “well isn’t this nice'”.

The restraining chain was also known as “the Monkey Chain” to aircrew of the time.

Possibly the “anti-cavorting chain” (like a king-sized dog lead,) which attached to a belt then clipped into a ringbolt in the floor, as in the Swordfish. If the belt broke, there was nothing else to keep him in.

Are you serious? That is terrifying!

Possibly the “anti-cavorting chain” (like a king-sized dog lead,) which attached to a belt then clipped into a ringbolt in the floor, as in the Swordfish. If the belt broke, there was nothing else to keep him in.

So no straps?

In January 1938, 57 would have been flying Hinds.

The obvious question is begged. Should he have been strapped in or was that not an option in that “machine”. The type appears to go unrecorded.

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THE YORKSHIRE POST, TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1938

HULL YOUTH KILLED IN
AIR MISHAP
250ft, FALL FROM MACHINE
R.A.F. ACCIDENTS

Falling, from a machine which had just taken off, Aircraftman (second
class) Walter George Goodhand (18) lost his life at Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire,
yesterday. He lived at Spring Street, Hull

The machine from which Goodhand, fell belonged to. Number 57 Bomber Squadron,
Upper Heyford, and was piloted by Pilot Officer C. T. Norman (Clive Theodore Norman)

Lewis gun ground practice was being carried out. The plane took an acute turn
at a height of about 250 feet and Goohand fell out crashing
into a hedge oon the border of the aerodrome. The pilot was at first
unaware of the accident. It is thought the machine may have struck an air “bump”
as Goodhand was leaning out.
Goodhand had recently completed his apprenticeship and had been at Upper Heyford
only a short time.

Alanis Morissette wrote a song along this theme!