Mysterious demise of pioneering aviator Amy

Amy Johnson became the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia, setting off from Croydon Airport on May 5, 1930, but 11 years later she died in mysterious circumstances that are still contested today, writes Claudia Lee.

Ms Johnson, from Hull, flew from Croydon Airport, which used to operate just off Purley Way, and landed 11,000 miles away in Darwin, Australia, 19-and-a-half days later.

Croydon Airport was the UK’s only international airport during the inter-war period.

It opened in 1920, built in a neoclassical style and was developed as Britain’s main airport, handling more cargo, mail, and passengers than any other UK airport at the time.

Despite falling short of Bert Hinkler’s record of 18 days flying from England to Australia, Ms Jonson’s time of six days from Croydon to India during her flight to Australia set up a new world record.

Ms Johnson set off alone in a single-engine De Havilland Gipsy Moth, which she called Jason.

The 26-year-old took a few sandwiches and some chocolate with her for the mission.

The journey across three continents, filled with danger and drama, was the first of her several record-breaking flights.

During the mission she narrowly missed flying into a mountain range, endured a forced landing in a desert sandstorm, another in a jungle and flew through tropical storms.

Ms Johnson navigated using only a compass and basic maps with a ruler to plot the most direct routes.

She had no radio link to the ground and no reliable information about weather conditions.

Halfway across the Timor sea she was spotted by a shell oil tanker which sent the news through wireless to Australia.

A heavy wind pushed her slightly off course, losing the aeroplanes escorting her, meaning she finished the trip to Port Darwin without assistance or guidance.

When Ms Johnson stepped on to Australian soil, a huge crowd was there to welcome her.

To the waiting journalists she said: “Tell England, my father and the rest of the world that I am here safe and sound, and so happy.

“The last hop was excellent, I enjoyed it all the way. I found Port Darwin without the least trouble.”

The successful flight of Ms Johnson from England to Australia sparked world-wide interest.

As soon as the news came out that she had landed safely at Darwin, congratulatory messages started piling in, including a letter from King George V.

Ms Johnson’s flying success depended on hard-won engineering expertise, specifically knowing how to repair her planes when things went wrong.

She was the first woman to gain a British Air Ministry ground engineer’s licence, and from 1935 to 1937, she served as president of the Women’s Engineering Society.

But tragically her life was cut short on January 5, 1941 when, aged just 37, her plane crashed into the Thames Estuary, east of London where the Thames meets the sea near Herne Bay in Kent.

The circumstances of her death caused a storm of controversy.

According to the official record, both her body and the wreckage of her plane were never found.

Supposedly, Ms Johnson got lost and ran out of fuel, causing her to parachute into the deadly waters.

However, decades after her death suggestions of a cover-up started to circulate.

A British soldier claimed that he’d shot Ms Johnson down, mistaking her for a Nazi bomber.

Then a historian claimed that a rescue boat trying to save her may have actually been the source of a brutal ending, claiming she may have been sucked into the boat’s propellers.

In 1999, an 83-year-old retired gardener, Tom Mitchell, claimed he’d been one of four soldiers who fired at Johnson.

He claimed soldiers were given the order to shoot when they spotted an unidentified plane flying towards the English Channel and the pilot repeatedly failed to give a correct colour code to prove they were British.

Mr Mitchell told The Guardian in 1999: “The reason Amy was shot down was because she gave the wrong colour of the day over the radio.

“She got it wrong twice, and that’s why we were ordered to shoot.

“The next day, when we read about it in the papers, the officers told us to keep quiet and never tell anyone what happened.”

Despite this, Ms Johnson will always be remembered for her heroic adventures, and Croydon Airport will always be known as the place where one of them began.

 

Picture: Amy Johnson at the London Aeroplane Club Picture: Flickr, Smithsonian Institution