ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 192588
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| Date: | Saturday 6 January 1945 |
| Time: | 14:54 |
| Type: |  Vickers Wellington Mk X |
| Owner/operator: | 1 AGS RAF |
| Registration: | LN553 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 7 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Kidwelly marshes, near Pembrey airfield, Carmarthenshire, Wales -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | RAF Pembrey |
| RAF Pembrey |
On 6 January 1945, the Wellington X LN553 of 1 AGS RAF (Air Gunnery School) took off at 1350 hrs from Pembrey airfield to carry out a cine gun exercise. At 1454 hrs the aircraft approached to land and 100 yards up the runway made a heavy wheel landing (with flaps down), and opened up to go round again. The aircraft climbed steadily to a height of 4-500 feet and retracted the undercarriage. It then turned sharply to port and immediately went into a spin at a steep angle from which it did not recover. It dived into the Kidwelly marshes near the airfield. Six of the crew were killed in the crash, mostly 19 year-old trainee air gunners, and the only survivor was injured. The crash was in fact Carmarthenshire’s worst air disaster of the war.
In the Inquiry into the accident it was considered that “the pilot must have selected flaps up and the flaps must have come up so suddenly, that the aircraft assumed a nose down attitude from which the pilot could not recover.”
Crew:
Flg Off Beverley John Wentworth Thomson RAAF (pilot) KIFA
Wt Off Cecil Gordon Dear (air gunner instructor) KIFA
AC2 Cecil Maurice Field (air gunner under training) KIFA
AC2 Peter Hixon Cain (air gunner under training) KIFA
AC2 John Frederick Bartholomew (air gunner under training) KIFA
AC2 Barry Campbell Hay (air gunner under training) KIFA
AC2 F R Ford (air gunner under training) WIFA
The six casualties are buried in various cemeteries in United Kingdom.
Sources:
https://www.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RC09125_023--1-.pdf
http://ukgo7.com/cmn2/RAF%20Pembrey%20Web%20Details.pdf
http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?7407-Casualties-6-1-1945
https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?88056-Wellington
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Pembrey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidwelly
http://www.maplandia.com/united-kingdom/wales/wales/carmarthenshire-sir-gaerfyrddin/kidwelly/
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 06-Jan-2017 07:31 | Laurent Rizzotti | Added |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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