Conisbrough Man is Plane Crash Victim (picture)

April 1966

South Yorkshire Times April 23, 1966

Conisbrough Man is Plane Crash Victim

Img_1610 scipio
A Conisbrough man died on Saturday when the Sheffield Aero Club plane  he was piloting crashed into a house in Aldridge, Staffordshire. A woman passenger was also killed.

The pilot was Mr Ben Scibio (trainer), elder son of Mr and Mrs S Scibio, of 39 Holywell Lane, Conisbrough. He was a partner in the recently opened Monkwood Autos in Doncaster Road, Denaby Main.

He had taken off from Nunthorpe Aerodrome, near Sheffield, in the club’s new £7,000 Cessna 172 on Saturday morning.

Mr Scibio had booked the single-engine plane in advance to take interior decorator, Miss Anna Maj of Chelsea, to Birmingham. The plane crashed into the bathroom of the house at Aldridge.

Polish Born

Polish born Mr Scibio, the son of a wartime pilot, came to this country about six years ago and had since lived in Conisbrough. He had been flying since 1962, when he went to Exeter Air Flying School to take a residential course.

Mrs Ada Scibio told the “South Yorkshire Times” on Monday: “Ben flew regularly and had flown earlier in the week – either on Monday or Tuesday. He mostly flew at weekends if the weather was fit.”

Flying and driving were his main interest, but when he first came to England he was keen on motorcycle scrambling and competed at Lister Dale, Rotherham, on his own machine.

Much of his time in England was spent in the motor trade network with Mr Patrick Burke, of Park Street Motors, Wombwell.

Inquest Opened

An inquest on Mr Scibio and Miss Maj, of Kemps Gardens, London, was opened and adjourned at Aldridge on Tuesday by the coroner, Mr D.F. Cave, who said it would be further adjourned if the Ministry of Aviation needed more time to trace the cause of the accident.

The Coroner said that the Ministry would need a fortnight and possibly a month to complete enquiries.