IN 2005, author Pat Cunningham published what he thought, until last month, was the definitive account of the 110 air crashes in the area from Lichfield to Buxton and the 299 from Lichfield to Huddersfield.
As he researched his three-book series, Peakland Air Crashes, The South, aimed at Peakland walkers, he investigated two air accidents in Scropton.
But just before Christmas, he found himself reading about another one which he knew nothing about.
And his latest book, White Peak Air Crash Sites, was already with a project editor so he was keen to find out more.
Pat was reading an appeal in the Derby Telegraph for information about young pilot Barbara Gubbins and the crash in which she died almost 60 years ago.
The appeal for information came from Barbara's second cousin, Bill Todd, who is planning to commemorate the 60th anniversary of her death.
Barbara died when the plane she was in crashed in a field off Leathersley Lane, Scropton. She was 20 years old.
"I've read in newspaper reports that she was a skilled horse-rider and that she liked hockey but I've never been able to track down anyone who knew her well," said Bill, who lives in North London.
"News reports from the time mentioned witnesses to the crash. I'd be interested to know if any are still alive as I'd like to speak to them."
Bill said he had always been aware of how Barbara died but it was only in the last couple of years that he decided to research it further.
"When I was a kid, it was one of those things you knew not to ask questions about. Then I got interested in family history and this story seemed like one to pursue.
"I started looking at newspaper archives. That's when I found a story from the Derby Telegraph about the crash and I decided to follow it through."
After reading Bill's plea, Pat e-mailed him, as instructed in the article.
"Before receiving a reply, I spent a very icy Monday canvassing long-standing residents of both Sudbury and Scropton, only to draw a blank where this crash was concerned," said Pat.
"Then Mr Todd responded and sent the Derby Telegraph article about the crash from March 1952, which included a photo of the crashed trainer aircraft that Barbara had been in.
"Armed with this to help me locate the crash location, I returned to the Scropton area, initially trying to contact two witnesses interviewed by the paper in 1952 – Raymond Harrison, of Hatton, and Brian Sidney Bullen, of Scropton, only to discover that both had moved on years since.
"Though drawing more blanks with long-term local residents, I was able to use information supplied by Mr Todd, and the original Telegraph photo, to determine that the crash had occurred on the edge of Foston Hall Woods.
"At the time, lads from what was then an approved school, and is now a women's prison, had run to give aid.
"Working from the RAF accident report summary which Mr Todd had obtained from the RAF Museum, Hendon, the repository for such documents, I was then able to recreate the story of the tragedy."
Pat said that Miss Gubbins was an undergraduate at Nottingham University and a member of the Women's Royal Air Force Reserve.
"On the day of the accident, she had got airborne from RAF Burnaston, now Toyota but then a flying training school, with her instructor, Flight Lieutenant Eric Church, who was to refresh her in the complexities of spinning.
"The contemporary rules for this always potentially fraught exercise read: 'When you have come down to 3,000 feet, you must prepare to abandon … and be sure that you can be out of the aircraft by 1,000 feet'.
"Despite this, some 17 minutes after take-off, their Percival Prentice trainer was seen to be spinning, relatively flatly, at the witnesses' estimate of just 400 feet.
"Shortly afterwards, the canopy was jettisoned and the pupil rose to her feet.
"However, only moments later, the aircraft struck the ground, killing both occupants."
Pat said that, as no technical fault was found, the court of enquiry had to conclude that the rules had been flouted and the spin recovery mishandled.
"Regrettably, it would not be aviation's last spin-related fatality but at least it focussed attention on the problem," he said.
"The rules were changed to state unequivocally: 'If spin recovery action has not been effective by 3,000 feet above ground level, abandon the aircraft'.
"And so, as with all such tragedies, the ongoing cause of flight safety was advanced."
Pat said that there was an added dimension to this story. "Had she survived the crash, Miss Gubbins might well have become the first woman to be awarded RAF pilot's wings (as opposed to those of the Air Transport Auxiliary), a distinction to be gained, just six months later in September 1952, by Pilot Officer Jean Lennox Bird."
Pat said that, from his point of view, the two visits paid off for, on arriving back from the second site area visit, he found the proof copy of his new book, two months before it was expected.
"The publisher wanted it back at the earliest possible moment, so the Telegraph article proved to be very timely," he said.
"My two excursions in pursuit of this story showed, as has all my research into Peak District aircrash sites, that the abiding interest of the job lies with the people canvassed in search of 60 or 70-year-old information.
"The quietest Derbyshire cottage shelters the most amazing characters.
"On this occasion, there was Edgar Merrey, of Sudbury, a former soldier who treasures a shot-torn Japanese flag, a Jap forage cap, complete with star, and the skin of a cobra which was unwise enough to slither into Edgar's hut shortly before the ultimately decisive Battle of Kohima in 1944.
"No atrocity stories, though. On the contrary, Edgar showed proof of the mutual respect held to this day between his own unit and that of the Japanese 31st Division opposing them.
"Then there was Patrick Thorpe, of Sudbury, who, withdrawn when well into his wartime aircrew training because of belatedly discovered colour blindness, served on as a ground wireless operator in India and Burma and is, hopefully, to be my first candidate among the wartime ground crews to complement my three-book series of, largely, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire wartime operational aircrew.
"I am now actively seeking wartime RAF and WAAF ground crew of any trade."
Pat said that arguably more problematical was the outcome of his meeting with Harry Archer, of Brookhouse Farm, and his sister, Ruth Russell, of the adjoining Brookside Farm, in Scropton.
"They knew nothing of the 300th crash, involving Barbara Gubbins, 'But,' Mr Archer offered, 'there was one that came over here between the house and our hay barn and crashed just up by those trees there'.
"Mrs Russell remembered, 'I was six and, as all the adults were in the sheds, busy at the evening milking, I was in the front room with my two young brothers.
"'Suddenly there was this noise and a glare lit up the darkness through the window as a burning aeroplane passed by'.
"And so I was presented with yet another unknown air crash – number 301."
Pat's most recent books, either released or due for release in the New Year, are Fear in the Sky, featuring former bomber pilot and celebrated local hairdresser Keith Hall; Fighter! Fighter! Corkscrew Port!; and, on the air-crash side, White Peak Air Crash Sites.
Additionally, an accompanying volume to his story of the martyred Joan Waste of Derby is in Waterstone's and the Museum and Cathedral bookshops, about Joyce Lewis, of Mancetter, who was burnt in Lichfield Market Place for heresy in the days of Bloody Mary.
Wartime RAF or WAAF ground crew can contact Pat on 01332 361058 or e-mail him at patjohn.cunningham@gmail.com.