Date:	Saturday 12 September 1931
Time:	day
Type:	Desoutter Mk I
Owner/operator:	National Flying Services Ltd
Registration:	G-AANC
MSN:	D.16
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Church Copse, Leith Hill, Ockley Abinger, near Dorking, Surrey -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Somerton Airfield, Cowes, Isle of Wight
Destination airport:	Hanworth Aerodrome, Hanworth, Middlesex
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Desoutter Mk.I G-AANC; first registered 29.1.30 to National Air Services Ltd., Hanworth, Middlesex (C of A 2454/C of R 2178) issued same day. Written off (damaged beyond repair) 12.9.31 when crashed into trees in fog, at Church Copse, Leith Hill, Ockley Abinger, near Dorking, Surrey. All three persons on board were killed:

Captain Edmund Louis Owen Baddeley (pilot, aged 36)
Lt Peter Claude Boileau (passenger aged 26) and
Lt Graham George Hughes (passenger aged 27).

According to a contemporary newspaper report ("Gloucester Journal" - Saturday 26 September 1931)

"LOCAL VICTIM OF PLANE DISASTER
CAPT. BADDELEY AND TRIPLE CRASH.
INQUEST VERDICT

A VERDICT of "Accidental death due to weather conditions" was returned at the resumed inquest at Dorking on the bodies of the three officers of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry who were killed on September 12 when their aeroplane crashed near Leith Hill. The victims were Captain Edmund Louis Owen Baddeley (36), Cowley Barracks, Oxford, and Castle Hale, Painswick, Gloucestershire son Mr. W. St. Clair Baddeley. Lieutenant Peter Claude Boileau (26), of Parkhurst Barracks, Isle of Wight, and Ford-Lanes, Northam, North Devon - and Lieutenant Graham George Hughes (27), of Cowley Barracks, and Bain House, Watlington, Oxford.

Captain Baddeley was piloting a private machine from Cowes to London, when it crashed in thick mist. A pet French bulldog which was with the officers in the machine was also killed.

Mr. G. Wills Taylor, the Coroner, had adjourned the inquiry in order that a report by the Air Ministry inspector might be available. The Coroner told the jury that the three officers were returning from Cowes, where they had been to see the Schneider Trophy flight, when the accident happened.

Very Careful
Colonel B. C. T. Paget, Officer Commanding the Depot of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry at Cowley Barracks, said that Captain Baddeley was an experienced and careful air pilot. He served with the R.A.F. from 1922 to 1926, and afterwards was member of Hanworth Civil Aviation Club. "I have flown with him over the same coarse in worse weather than on the of day of the crash," said Colonel Paget, "and he was very careful to keep high. He was extraordinarily fit and a total abstainer."

Captain Maxwell Findlay, flying instructor at the London Air Park, Hanworth, said that he tested the machine, a three-seater monoplane, on the morning before the accident, and it was then perfectly all right. The altimeter, he said, would show the height of the machine above sea-level, but not the actual height above land.

Dr. S. M. McKenzie, of Dorking, said that in each case death was instantaneous.

Lost His Bearings
Major Cooper, Chief Inspector of Accidents for the Air Ministry, who had inspected the smashed aeroplane, thought it probable that the machine first struck the branch of tree which extended a little above some other trees. It was his opinion that the pilot lost his bearings in the low clouds and attempted to come lower to correct his course. In the clouds and with no horizon visible he temporarily lost control, and the machine made a steeper dive than the pilot intended.

The jury returned the verdict stated.

Registration G-AANC cancelled by the Air Ministry due to "destruction or permanent withdrawl from use of aircraft by/on 30.9.31. The reported crash site of Leith Hill is a wooded hill 7 kilometres (4.3 miles) to the south west of Dorking, Surrey, England. It reaches 294 metres (965 ft) above sea level, the highest point on the Greensand Ridge, and is the second highest point in south-east England. Leith Hill is the highest ground for 49 miles (79 km).

1. Surrey Mirror - Friday 18 September 1931 (accident report)
2. Gloucester Journal - Saturday 26 September 1931 (inquest into the accident and the three fatalities)
3. Gloucester Journal - Saturday 19 September 1931 (report on funeral of pilot)
4. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AANC.pdf
5. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_G-A1.html
6. http://afleetingpeace.org/index.php/15-aeroplanes/75-register-gb-g-aa
7. http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1934.htm
8. http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/Visschedijk/9944.htm
9. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/13/C203: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6576671
10. The Sydney Morning Herald, Tue 15 September 1931, Page 9 at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16801354
11. Photo of wreckage: https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10320798
12. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=14471.0
13. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/production-lists/Desoutter.pdf
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leith_Hill

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
14-Nov-2017 18:47	Dr. John Smith	Added
14-Nov-2017 19:00	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
19-Apr-2018 23:49	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Damage]
22-Feb-2020 13:54	Sergey L.	Updated [Operator]
26-Feb-2020 16:31	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Source, Narrative]
26-Feb-2020 16:33	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
17-Nov-2022 00:37	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Departure airport, Source, Narrative, Category]