Date:	Sunday 9 July 1978
Time:	11:42 UTC
Type:	Let Aero 45 (145)
Owner/operator:	William Henry Grimes
Registration:	G-ASWS
MSN:	172004
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Category:	Accident
Location:	Lydd Airport, Ashford, Kent -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Initial climb
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Lydd, Ashford, Kent (LYX/EGMD)
Destination airport:	Le Touquet Côte d'Opale Airport (LTQ/LFAT)
Investigating agency:	AIB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
Let Aero 45 (145) G-ASWS: Written off (destroyed) when crashed due to an EFATO (Engine Failure At Take Off) during climb out from Lydd Airport, Ashford, Kent, killing all four persons on board (pilot and three passengers). The aircraft was en-route from Elstree, Hertfordshire, to Le Touquet, France, with a stopover at Lydd Airport, Ashford, Kent (presumably to clear H.M.Customs). On take off from Lydd the pilot reported a starboard engine failure at about 150 feet. The aircraft drifted to starboard, losing height, and the Lydd tower alerted the airport fire service. It rolled slowly to starboard until vertically banked, whereupon it pivoted on its normal axis and dived steeply into a field some 400 metres from the runway threshold and outside the airport perimeter. It crashed into the ground, instantly killing all four of its occupants, but it did not catch fire.

Now you might assume that with a crash just beyond an airport's boundary, the airport fire crew would be the first on the scene. But this was not the case here - seemingly because the fire tenders were not taxed or insured for use on public roads and their drivers did not have the requisite HGV licences to drive such vehicles on such roads or the authority to go onto private land. Thus it was left for the Kent County Fire Brigade to attend the crash site. The Lydd firemen - having had to abandon their vehicle - arrived at the crash site 18-22 minutes after the crash - followed by the New Romney engine five minutes later - and then engines from Rye, Folkestone and Dymchurch, together with a foam tender from Canterbury, 26 minutes after being alerted. However it took a farm hand to lead a convoy of engines through the maze of drainage ditches and bridges, that criss-cross that part of the Romney Marsh, in order that they might reach the crash site. But it was members of the Cinque Ports Flying Club who were first on the scene, having run across the fields, and waded through a dyke, to reach the site about ten minutes after the crash. However all of these issues were largely academic as the four people on board the aeroplane were killed on impact.

It is not that the Lydd Airport fire crew didn't want to attend the off airport crash scene but that the airport operator would not allow them to do so. The immediate dialogue, between the tower and the airport fire crew, makes for poignant reading. It was as follows:

'Tower: Crash one would you return to the dispersal the crash has happened outside the airport
Crew: Is there any way we can reach it at all?
Tower: Er negative come back to the ..... erm no I can't release you from the airport I'm afraid the local facilities will have to deal with it come back to dispersal
Crew: Can we try to get a skeleton crew with the Landrover we should be able to do some help over s'bloody ridiculous not being able to do a thing
Tower: Now now don't get excited just return to dispersal'

According to the following extract from the official AAIB report into the accident:

"The accident occurred following a total loss of power in the right hand engine during the initial climb, shortly after becoming airborne. Directional control was progressively lost, and the aircraft descended steeply from about 100 feet agl. The aircraft crashed into a corn field about 400 yards beyond the end of the runway at Lydd. All four occupants on board were killed, and the aircraft was destroyed.

No engine defect could be found to account for the power loss, but it is possible that there was a deliberate closure of the fuel cock to the right hand engine. It is not known which if the two front seat occupants was controlling the aircraft before or after the power loss occurred, but it is concluded that the crash was cause by loss of directional control during asymmetric powered flight."

A contemporary newspaper report names the four fatalities ("Daily Mirror" - Monday 10 July 1978)

"Schoolgirl dies on air trip treat.
Schoolgirl Cathy Morford died with her father yesterday on a plane trip he arranged as treat. The pretty fourteen-year-old was one of four people killed when their light aircraft crashed into a cornfield in Kent. They were heading for a Sunday lunch date at Le Touquet in France.

As they were taking off after getting Customs clearance at Lydd airport one of the Aero 145 plane's two engines cut out.

Tragedy.
The plane plunged to the ground from 150ft. Also killed were the pilot, London garage owner Bill Grimes (55) and one of his employees, Gary Wheeler. They had all set out from Elstree, Herts, where the Morford's lived. Mr. Morford was steward of the aero club there, and last night a spokesman for the club said "We are deeply upset by this tragedy, Cathy had really been excited about her day out to France with her dad."

A controller at Lydd airport said "The plane had only just taken off when one engine failed. The pilot radioed that he had a problem and we gave him priority clearance to return to the airfield. But before he could turn the plane went into a dive."

As the AAIB notes, the aircraft was "destroyed"; however, for some reason the registration G-ASWS was not cancelled until six years later, on 7.2.1984 as "destroyed"

1. Daily Mirror - Monday 10 July 1978
2. Harrow Observer - Friday 14 July 1978
3. AAIB: https://assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/media/5422fe6e40f0b61346000a2b/1-1980_G-ASWS.pdf
4. CAA: https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-ASWS-1.pdf
5. CAA: https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-ASWS-2.pdf
6. G-ASWS at Cranfield in 1968: https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1308385
7. G-ASWS at Biggin Hill 17/5/75: https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1070473
8. G-ASWS at Elstree in July 1976: https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1530672

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
06-Aug-2015 01:12	Dr. John Smith	Added
21-Oct-2015 21:14	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Date, Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Damage, Narrative, Plane category, ]
05-Jan-2018 21:15	TB	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Operator, Location]
30-Jun-2018 17:00	TB	Updated [Aircraft type]
05-Mar-2020 20:28	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Source, Narrative]