Amy Johnson missing, feared drowned - archive, 1941

7 January 1941: The English aviator’s plane was seen to dive into the Thames estuary

Miss Amy Johnson, the famous air-woman, is missing, and it is feared that she has been drowned. Miss Johnson was piloting an aircraft when it is believed that she must have gone off her course over the Thames estuary. The aircraft was seen to dive into the sea and she baled out. A speedboat went out to search for in her, but she could not be found.

“No chance of survival”
“There is no possibility that Amy Johnson could have survived when her ‘plane came down off the Thames estuary on Sunday afternoon (writes Drew Middleton, Associated Press war correspondent in London in an exclusive eyewitness account). I watched her ‘plane glide gracefully down into the water, smash on a wave, and sink before help could reach her.

A seaman from a balloon ship dived into the icy waters to try and save one person in the aircraft. He is now lingering between life and death, and is unable to say whether the survivor he clutched by the collar for a few moments before the waves parted them was Amy Johnson or another occupant of the ‘plane.

There is absolutely no chance of the former wife of Jim Mollison being alive. No one could live for more than half an hour in that water. The seaman who made the rescue attempt was half dead with exposure when pulled on board the lifeboat.

The incident occurred in mid-afternoon, when the ship on which I was a passenger was nearing the Thames estuary. Suddenly the look-out shouted ‘aircraft off the port.’ An aircraft was flying at about 750 feet. I could hear no sound of a motor. Suddenly it turned and started a long glide downwards, coming at right-angles to the path of the ship. It was about two miles away. Something white fluttered out and dropped into the sea. It might have been a parachute. If it was, it was a desperate jump for the ‘plane was less than 200 feet above the water.

Seaman’s gallant rescue effort
As we neared the spot I thought I saw someone clinging to the fuselage. The look-out said ‘No, its just part of the machine.’ Two boats put out. As they neared the wreckage a figure jumped from one into the water. He clutched at another figure near and gestured towards the lifeboat, but the heavy swell rushed them past the two struggling figures.

The lifeboats pulled back towards the two figures, but suddenly there was only one man in the water, and he, receiving a terrific buffeting from the icy waves, was sinking fast. A ship came up, and two men dived in to save him. All three struggled in the water for a moment. Finally they got the seaman on board the lifeboat and a doctor was called.”

A ship coursed over the spot for nearly half an hour after the rescue attempt, but saw no sign of a body.

Ferrying aircraft
Air Transport Auxiliary, of which Amy Johnson had been a member for some months, is responsible for delivering aircraft from factories to RAF airfields. There are several women pilots with the organisation. Amy Johnson was recently stated to have been engaged in flying from airfield to airfield picking up other women pilots of the ATA who had landed after delivering their aircraft. Jim Mollison, her former husband, was recently stated to be among men pilots with Air Transport Auxiliary. Mr and Mrs J W Johnson, Amy Johnson’s parents, live at Bridlington. Another daughter, Mrs Molly Jones, is the wife of Mr Trevor Jones, Town Clerk of Blackpool. Amy Johnson is the third famous woman aviator lost at sea. The others were Amelia Earhart, who vanished in the Pacific, and the Duchess of Bedford, who was lost in the North Sea while making a short flight from East Anglia.

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