Jet crashes on car works

Jet crashes on car works

Account of crash of HS-125 onto Vauxhall van assembly block, Luton in which Harold Dryhurts was killed.

One newspaper cutting

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Jet crashes on car works

TWO MEN were killed last night when their private jet aircraft flew into a roof at the Vauxhall Motors Luton factory.
Eye-witnesses said the plane failed to maintain height after taking off at Luton Airport. It hit the roof of the Vauxhall van assembly block, became wedged and burst into flames.
The dead men were Captain Harry Dryhurst, aged 44, and a conversion trainee, First Officer D.W. Boothman, aged 29.
The aircraft was a Hawker Siddeley twin-engined executive jet – nicknamed “The Flying Boardroom” – and was owned by the Beecham Group for executive travel. It was operated by a small airline, Autair International, out of Luton Airport.
Captain Dryhurst, a £4,000-a-year former instructor at the Aviation Ministry, was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat.
A spokesman for Autair said: “First Officer Boothman was due to undergo single-engine flight. this may well have been going on before the crash.”
Captain Dryhurst who lived at Bishop’s Stortford, was married with three children. First Officer Boothman, of Silso, Beds,. [sic] was also married.
The Autair spokeman said the pilots had been engaged in flying, landing and take-off exercises for about two hours.