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Date: | Saturday 27 May 1961 |
Time: | day |
Type: | Auster J/4 Archer |
Owner/operator: | Middlesex Flying Group |
Registration: | G-APJM |
MSN: | 2091 |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | Near Varne Lightship, English Channel, 9 miles SW of Dover, Kent. -
United Kingdom
|
Phase: | En route |
Nature: | Private |
Departure airport: | Lympne, Kent (LYM/EGMK) |
Destination airport: | Deauville, France |
Confidence Rating: | Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Narrative:Auster Archer G-APJM started life as Auster Arrow G-AJPU. However in 1957 it traded its Continental C75 engine for a Blackburn Cirrus engine and became G-APJM. As such it operated for about three and a half years, finally in the hands of the Middlesex Flying Group. Presumably John Duer was one of the members of that group when, on 27 May 1961, he took off from Lympne to fly to Le Touquet. However he got no further than about nine miles off Dover when, for reasons that I haven't ascertained, he ditched the Auster near to the Varne Lightship. It appears that Mr Duer survived this incident. The Archer did not. It sunk and was not recovered (even though, I presume, the water in the vicinity of the Varne Bank is relatively shallow).
A contemporary newspaper report adds a further account of the incident (The Sunday People - Sunday 28 May 1961)
'SPOT ON' DIVE SAVES AIRMAN
QUICK thinking saved 25-year-old pilot John Duer when the engine of an Auster plane he was flying to France failed over the English Channel yesterday.
Said John at Dover last night: "I was well out to sea when the engine spluttered. A little earlier I had spotted a lightship through a break in the clouds, so I glided towards it. The plane just made it. We came down in the water less than 100 yards from the lightship. I got out, swam to the lightship and they hauled me aboard with a rope."
A lifeboat took him off and landed him at Dover. Then John took a taxi to Lympne Airport—and flew off in another plane."
Registration G-APJM formally cancelled by UK Civil Aviation Authority 1 July 1961 as "destroyed"
Sources:
1. The People - Sunday 28 May 1961
2.
https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-APJM.pdf 3.
https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AJPU-1.pdf 4.
https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AJPU-2.pdf 5. G-APJM at Elstree Airfield (EGTR) on 14/6/58:
https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1533667 6. G-APJM at Elstree Airfield (EGTR) in 1960:
https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1099632/ 7.
http://austerhg.org/prod_list/pages.php?page=1990 8.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varne_Bank 9.
https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses-and-lightvessels/varne-lightvessel 10. G-APJM as G-AJPU at Southend (Rochford) (SEN/EGMC) on 1/12/56:
https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1421051 Media:
The Varne Light Vessel in 2014:
Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
17-May-2008 11:10 |
ASN archive |
Added |
01-Jul-2009 23:29 |
VHKDK |
Updated |
05-Jan-2012 15:23 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Nature, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
04-Jun-2012 14:04 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Embed code] |
20-Mar-2014 23:33 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
29-Mar-2020 20:13 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Time, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |