Crash site	Altenkirchen, Germany
Airline	British Airways
Aircraft	De Havilland DH.86 Express  –  G-ADEB  –  Diana
Route	Hanover  –  Cologne  –  London/Gatwick
Crew	2  –  0 survivors
Passengers	0

 

The crash

The plane was on a nightly mail flight from Hanover to Cologne. Around 03:00 the plane crashed into a mountainside near Altenkirchen 50 km southeast of Cologne. The pilot Charles S. Gill survived the crash but died of his injuries on 17 August.

 

The mail

It is not known how much mail there was on board the plane, but very few items were salvaged.
Both Hopkins and Nierinck mention a cover sent from Voss, Norway and postmarked on 10.8.36. The cover was forwarded in a service cover to the recipient in Whauphill, Wigtownshire, Scotland together with an explanatory letter from the London Postal Service, Mount Pleasant, London E.C.1.
It is not known if this explanatory letter is the same as the one illustrated by Nierinck – see below.

 

A.
Manuscipt note.

Illustrated by Nierinck.

 

Note it says Imperial Airways plane which is wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Examples of mail