Date:	Monday 21 February 1949
Time:	23:30
Type:	de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito FB Mk VI
Owner/operator:	204 AFS RAF
Registration:	RS645
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	near Camber Castle, Harbour Road, 1 mile SE of Rye, Sussex, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Driffield, North Yorkshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Mosquito RS645: Took off at 22:00 hrs for a Night training flight /Cross country exercise. 21/02/1949
The crew had been briefed to fly at 20,000 feet in order to be over the tops of possible cumulus or cumulonimbus formations which had been forecast. At approximately 23:30 hrs it was seen to spin out of clouds in squally weather and crash near Camber Castle, Harbour Road, 1 mile SE of Rye, East Sussex.
From the appearance of the wreckage, it was considered that the aircraft hit the ground in a flat spin to the left with very little forward speed. This conclusion was reached because the engines lay out of alignment, their noses pointing to starboard of the fore and aft line of the aircraft. The engines, being the heaviest parts of the aircraft, had gone down into the ground and the airframe, which was rotating to port, had pulled round in that direction from them. The undercarriage units gave similar evidence. In the absence of any evidence of technical failure, the reason for the loss of control was never discovered.
Crew:
P.2 (1624378) Ronald Frederick HENSBY (pilot) RAF: killed
N.4 (3046028) William Henry VINNICOMBE (nav.) RAF: killed

According to a contemporary newspaper report ("Gloucester Citizen" - Tuesday 22 February 1949)
"MOSQUITO CRASHES IN MARSHLAND.
TWO bodies were found in an RAF Mosquito, overdue on a training flight from Driffield, Yorkshire, which was found crashed to-day on the marshes near the ruins of Camber Castle, between Rye and Winchelsea, Sussex. The spot was very difficult to reach because there are no roads, and many deep dykes intersect the marshes. The aircraft was one for which search was made between midnight and 3 a.m. by police and fire brigades, after a report had been received by Rye police that an aircraft, at first described as an airliner, was thought to have crashed in the channel following an explosion. Hastings lifeboat had searched Rye Bay, between Winchelsea and Dungeness, and cruised along the coast, using its searchlights, without any trace being found of an aircraft.

The Mosquito, one of three on a flight from Yorkshire, was reported by the Air Ministry to be overdue soon after midnight, after the other two planes had returned safely to their station. The planes were timed to turn at New Romney, Kent, not many miles from Rye, shortly before midnight. People in the Rye harbour district, heard a thud about then. The aircraft had been seen flashing its lights, apparently as a signal of distress, when it was circling near Rye, with one engine spluttering badly."

1.http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH98%20prodn%20list.txtt
2.Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.479
3.Gloucester Citizen - Tuesday 22 February 1949
4.http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2729.0
5.ORB 204 AFS RAF: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR29/1989 6.https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4101699
7.Accident Report: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/29/W2441: 8.https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578287
9.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camber_Castle#20th_%E2%80%93_21st_centuries

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
04-Mar-2014 21:00	Nepa	Added
22-May-2014 05:15	Nepa	Updated [Departure airport, Narrative]
29-Aug-2014 14:18	MiG15	Updated [Location, Narrative]
26-Jul-2015 10:46	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Location]
02-May-2019 20:31	Nepa	Updated [Other fatalities, Location, Nature, Narrative, Operator]
22-Nov-2019 18:45	Nepa	Updated [Narrative, Operator]
03-Dec-2019 17:50	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Departure airport, Source]
16-Feb-2020 00:15	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
18-Feb-2020 11:56	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Source, Narrative, Operator]
19-Jul-2020 23:05	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Location, Source, Narrative]
20-Jul-2020 09:32	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Location, Source, Narrative, Operator]
13-Jan-2021 16:52	Anon.	Updated [Narrative, Operator]
03-Aug-2021 20:04	Anon.	Updated [Location, Operator]