The nationalisation of scheduled airlines in 1947, forming BEA, lead some pilots to set up an independent charter service. Mannin Airways offered a passenger charter air service, based on the Isle of Man. They flew De Havilland DH 98 Dragon Rapide planes - a plywood bi-plane, twin engined, able to take around 8 passengers.
A group of passengers chartered such a plane [G-AKOF] to visit Dublin from Ronaldsway, Isle of Man, and return. The pilot was John Higgins, was who was very experienced [15000 flying hours], and the radio operator was Noel Clucas. They left Dublin on their return trip to Ronaldsway on 12 November 1948, but on arrival at Ronaldsway, there was fog and, after several attempts, the pilot decided to divert to Speke, Liverpool, where visibility was better. On approach to Speke, at 18:15, he ran out of fuel: his last message was "out of fuel, going down".
The plane landed in the Garston Channel, off Cressington about 3 miles from Speke runway. Some of those on board survived the landing at sea but were thrown into the water - and found the plane had sunk. Regrettably, they had not donned the life-jackets that were stowed aboard. Of the 8 persons aboard, only one made it to safety - by swimming to the shore. The newspaper report, appended, names the passengers.
The MDHB salvage vessel Salvor later lifted the wreckage of the
plane [image from Sphere magazine]:
The plane was found to have no petrol in the tanks of either engine, and the roof of the fuselage was torn away.
Belfast News-Letter - Friday 12 November 1948:
LINER CRASHES IN MERSEY
Report of the sole survivor (Mr. John Matthew Cannon of
Douglas): We reached the Isle of Man from Dublin, and the pilot
started circling at Douglas. I think he decided that it was too foggy
to land, and he set course for Liverpool. As we came up the river
everything appeared to be fine, but suddenly the pilot shouted: I am
landing on shore. I think we touched the shore, and then hit the
water, and I must have been thrown through the window. We all seemed
to be in the water and my wife and I and another young fellow tried to
make our way back to the plane. The 'plane, however, disappeared. I
then struck out for the shore, and I was holding my wife as best I
could. When I was within 50 yards of the shore I had to let her go.
He and his wife were
celebrating her 25th birthday. Mrs. Cannon's mother, Mrs Kewley, of
Dalton Street, Douglas was putting the finishing touches to her
daughter's birthday cake and packing up her birthday present, when
news came of the accident.
Missed 'plane. The luckiest person was a
young girl named Hogan, who is believed to be Irish. She flew to
Dublin in the plane, but did not make the return trip as she arrived
at Collinstown five minutes too late.
Pilot of the machine was Captain
John Higgins. He left B.E.A. at the start of last summer and formed
Mannin Airways, a charter company which owned three Rapide planes. He
leaves a widow and three children. The eldest son is a flying cadet in
the R.A.F. His widow, interviewed last night, said that she had been
told that if her husband had had a little more petrol in the tank of
the plane, he could have made Speke as he was almost within sight of the
runway when the engines went dead. The other member of the crew was
Radio Operator Clucas. Among the passengers were Juan Kelly (19), son
of the late High Bailiff of Ramsey and Peel; Louis Jacobs, of Douglas;
Mrs. and Miss Bridson, of Douglas; and Mrs. Cannon.