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Date: | Thursday 16 February 1939 |
Time: | day |
Type: | North American Harvard |
Owner/operator: | A&AEE RAF |
Registration: | N7000 |
MSN: | 49-748 |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | Eyke, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England -
United Kingdom
|
Phase: | En route |
Nature: | Military |
Departure airport: | RAF Martlesham Heath, Suffolk |
Destination airport: | |
Confidence Rating: | Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Narrative:North American Harvard Mk I N7000, A&AEE, Martlesham Heath: Written off (destroyed) 16/2/39 when spun into the ground, at Eyke, near Woodbridge, Suffolk. Both persons on board were killed:
Crew:
Squadron Leader Robert Travers Cazalet (pilot) killed
Mr Richard Peter Alston (Civilian Senior Scientific Officer, Royal Aircraft Establishment) killed
The Times of Sat 18/2/39 has the following details on the crash of N7000 on 16/2/39:
"An anti-spin parachute, designed to assist pilots to regain control of aeroplanes in a spin, was described at the inquest, held at Martlesham, near Ipswich, yesterday, on the bodies of Squadron Leader Robert Travers Cazalet, RAF, 27, and his passenger, Richard Peter Alston, 32, of Windlesham, Surrey a scientific officer attached to the RAF Establishment at Farnborough, Hants, who were killed when one of the new North American Harvard trainers crashed and took fire at Eyke, near Ipswich on Thursday. They had flown from Farnborough to test the aeroplane, which had been in use for about eight weeks.
Squadron Leader S. W. D. Collis, of the RAF Station Martlesham Haeth, said that before Squadron Leader Cazalet took off he showed him the controls of the anti-spin parachute. Cazalet remarked: "I shall not need that as I am not going to spin the machine." The parachute was to assist a pilot who dropped into a spin to regain control of the machine.
Pilot Officer W. J. Carr said that the machine had been flown continuously while at Martlesham and had not shown any faults. The flight was specially to enable the scientific officer to give his opinion of the aeroplane.
Describing the crash Superintendent C.F. Quarm of the RAC, Ipswich, a former member of the Royal Flying Corps, said that when the aeroplane was 3,000 ft up, it got into a flat spin. It did six spins and then straightened out, but it got into another spin and this time the pilot could not regain control.
Medical evidence was that both men were killed instantly."
Sources:
1. Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000-N9999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain, 1983)
2. The Times, London 18 February 1939
3. Belfast News-Letter Antrim, Northern Ireland 17 February 1939
4.
http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1939.htm 5.
http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?2728-Early-RAF-Harvard-losses 6.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/152342853/robert-travers-cazalet Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
24-Mar-2018 20:02 |
Dr. John Smith |
Added |
30-Mar-2018 16:49 |
A.J.Scholten |
Updated [Cn] |
21-Apr-2018 18:19 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Source, Narrative] |
11-Oct-2019 21:59 |
angels one five |
Updated [Narrative] |