Letter: Barracuda blues

Sir: Your references to the Fairey Barracuda aircraft (Obituaries, 27 July; Letters, 30 July) brought memories of wartime schooldays when newly-built aircraft flew from Ringway (now Manchester airport). The anecdotal reports among the plane spotters were that these machines had an unfortunate tendency in level flight of going into an irrecoverable dive and burying themselves in the Cheshire countryside.

One one occasion I heard a Barracuda flying low overhead and looked out in time to see it disappear behind some trees, followed by a loud crash. Unfortunately, the pilot was killed, and was later alleged to have been showing off to his girlfriend. We always had our doubts and suspected the usual 'pilot's error' type of cover-up.

Yours faithfully,

LESLIE BUCHANAN

Hale, Cheshire

1 August