Memorial plaque at "Mac's Garage"

Image: © John Myers Taken: 14 Apr 2011

In the early hours of Saturday, September 12th 1987, a Beechcraft 200 Super King Air operated by National Airways, crash-landed on a car showroom in Eastwood Road, Rayleigh. The plane, piloted by 34 year old New Zealander, Hugh Forrester Brown, was just 3 minutes out of Southend Airport en route for Bergamo, Italy with a cargo of newspapers. In the fierce fire that followed the plane and the showroom were largely destroyed and the pilot died, the only casualty of the accident. I live about half a kilometre back along the flight path and was woken by a very low flying plane but went back to sleep only to be rewoken by sirens as the emergency services rushed to the scene. Only next morning did the sheer good fortune of local residents become apparent as the aircraft had hit the only unoccupied building in a tight-packed residential area. It is thought that the pilot had been attempting a landing on the Eastwood Road but had unfortunately missed that objective by a mere 15 metres. Mac's did not long survive the incident and the rebuilt showroom is now a Vauxhall dealership.

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