On December 18, 1919, Alcock was piloting a new Vickers amphibious aircraft, the Vickers Viking, to the first post-war aeronautical exhibition in Paris when he crashed in fog near Rouen in Normany. Alcock suffered a fractured skull and never regained consciousness after being transferred to a hospital in Rouen.
He is buried in Manchester's Southern Cemetery. His grave is marked by a large stone memorial which includes a representation of an aircraft propellor.