Date:	Saturday 1 June 1968
Time:	day
Type:	Miles M.38 Messenger Mk 4A
Owner/operator:	Ronald Emmanuel Gold
Registration:	G-AKKG
MSN:	6700
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Round Wood, Eder Farm, Partridge Green, West Grinstead, West Sussex -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Elstree Airport, Elstree, Hertfordshire (ETR/EGTR)
Destination airport:	Dial Post, West Grinstead, East Sussex
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
c/no 6700: HB-EEC Messenger Mk.4 (145 hp DH Gipsy Major 10) with oval rear windows. Application for C of A made by Miles Aircraft Ltd. and C of A No.9501 issued on 12.9.47 to Nhora S.A., Switzerland. Registered HB-EEC 12.12.47 but cancelled 28.1.48 and returned to the UK, the Swiss registration being re-allocated to Miles Messanger c/no 6727.

First UK registered 30 April 1948 to Miles Aircraft Ltd., Woodley Aerodrome, Reading Berkshire (C of R 11994/1; C of A 9501). Aircraft sold on and re-registered eight times between 30 April 1948 and 23 February 1967, as follows:

30/4/48: Registered to Miles Aircraft Ltd., Woodley Aerodrome, Reading, Berkshire (C of R 11994/1; C of A 9501)
29/6/48: Registration cancelled/lapsed upon sale
2/7/48: Re-registered to Shell-Mex and B.P. Ltd., Strand, London WC.2 (with new C of R R.1832/2 and new C of A A.1832). Reportedly based at Haddenham (Thame) Airfield, Buckinghamshire: "In its post-war role the M38 has performed well and served a variety of private and commercial interests. For several years one example, G-AKKG, was to be seen at almost every aviation event, flown by larger than life Vivian arcoe who was in charge of Shell’s aviation operations". ("General Aviation" December 2012 issue page 48)
23/6/57: Registration cancelled/lapsed upon sale
5/4/57: Re-registered (C of R R.1832/3) to F.G. Miles Ltd., Shoreham Airport, Shoreham, West Sussex
11/1/58: Registration cancelled/lapsed upon sale
1/8/58: Re-registered (C of R R.1832/4) to Benjamin Gerald Heron, Bournemouth. Wore the name "AIR ROVER" on the nose in the early 1960s
20/5/62: Crashed after take-off from City Airport, Portsmouth when propeller became detached, starboard undercarriage wrenched off but two occupants uninjured.
19/7/63: Registration cancelled/lapsed upon sale (although retrospectively, as not notified until 23/8/63)
26/8/63: Re-registered (C of R R.1832/5) to Dacien Ltd., Christchurch
7/7/65: Registration cancelled/lapsed upon sale
14/7/65: Reregistered (C of R R.1832/6) to Richard Thomas Wilson, London W.9
7/10/66: Registration cancelled/lapsed upon sale (although retrospectively, as not notified until 10/11/66)
8/12/66: Re-registered (C of R R.1832/7) to Gayover Caravans Ltd., London W.2
10/2/67: Registration cancelled/lapsed upon sale
23/2/67: Re-registered (C of R R.1832/8) to Ronald Emmanuel Gold, Edgware, Middlesex

On 1/6/68 on a flight from Elstree to Dial Post, West Grinstead, G-AKKG crashed at Round Wood, Eder Farm, Partridge Green, West Sussex, while attempting an emergency landing. The aircraft was burnt out and the pilot, Ronald Gold, died two days later from severe burns, the passenger Martin Burns being seriously injured. According to a contemporary newspaper report (Harrow Observer - Friday 07 June 1968)

"The Stanmore pilot was fatally injured and his young passenger, also of Stanmore, badly burned when a light aircraft which had taken off from Elstree crashed and burst into flames at West Grinstead, near Horsham, Sussex on Saturday.

The pilot was Mr. Ronald Gold, aged about 40, a caravan dealer, of 57, Wychwood Avenue. Canons Park, who died in Worthing Hospital the following day His passenger in the aircraft - a single-engined Miles Messenger - was 13-year-old Perry Burns, of 15, Green Acre Drive, Stanmore. Perry was admitted to the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, which achieved fame during the Second World War for its skin grafts to badly burned pilots.

"The pilot was on the edge of the blaze. The boy had been thrown clear. We put out the fire to the boy's clothing and got him away. "We then attended to the pilot but he was in a very bad way. We managed to do something for him and also get him away." Mr. Stewart added that he could see no obvious signs that the aircraft was in difficulties One person who knew the dead man well is Mrs. Elaine Barrett, a director of Leavesden Flying School, of which Mr. Gold was one of the earliest members.

`DOING WELL'
Perry's mother told a reporter on Wednesday: "I have been with him all the time since the accident. We are still concerned, but he is progressing very well" She did not know whether her son would need surgery. "We've just got to wait and see." she said. Mr. Gold, who was a friend of Perry's family, took off from Elstree aerodrome and was thought to be flying to a West Grinstead caravan site where he and his wife had been staying.

EYE-WITNESS
An eye witness to the accident was Mr. William Stewart, manager of the nearby Eder Farm - a training centre for young Jews about to go to Israel. He said that he and other people had seen the aircraft approaching and continued: "Then we saw it crash. Two trainees and myself ran to the plane, which was ablaze.

'A BIT ROUGH'
She told the Observer: "As far as I can make out, the aircraft was playing up a bit when they left. The engine seemed to be running a bit rough. "But it seems inconceivable that the crash should be due to engine failure. Only two weeks before the plane received its certificate of airworthiness from the Air Registration Board." Mrs Barrett thought it unlikely that the aircraft would have run out of fuel. "Ron was too experienced for that," she said, "he flew all over the country in his job.

"He was a very experienced pilot. He had already made an emergency landing perfectly successfully. But there isn't much chance to escape from his type of plane. It's made of wood and fabric and would go up like a splinter."

Registration G-AKKG cancelled by the CAA on 1/6/68 as "destroyed". Partridge Green is a village in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the B2135 road 2.5 miles (4 km) north-west of Henfield. It is in the parish of West Grinstead.

1. Harrow Observer - Friday 7 June 1968
2. Report on the Accident to Miles Messenger M.38 G-AKKG near Partridge Green, Sussex on 1st June 1968: Board of Trade : H.M.S.O., 1969. (British Library, London)
3. Kites, Birds & Stuff - MILES Aircraft p.61 By P.D. Stemp
4. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AKKG-1.pdf
5. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AKKG-2.pdf
6. https://www.sussexrecordsociety.org/dbs/biblio/subjects/Aviation/
7. https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/Stock-Images/Rights-Managed/MEV-10846056
8. https://www.iaopa.eu/static/CKFinderJava/userfiles/files/gamag/dec12/p48-50.pdf
9. G-AKKG at Luton 22/7/51: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dwhitworth/5506572980/
10. https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/76766-mmmmmmiles-aircraft-2.html#post730577
11. http://www.hampshireairfields.co.uk/xchbook/xchpart3-061019.pdf
12. http://www.haddenhamairfieldhistory.co.uk/beaufighters.htm
13. https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/76766-mmmmmmiles-aircraft-2.html#post730577
14. Messenger G-AKKG in 1948 as HB-EEC: https://www.na3t.org/air/photo/AG06348
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partridge_Green
16. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/archive/Archive_2002.pdf

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
05-Mar-2020 20:03	Dr. John Smith	Added
01-Oct-2022 19:34	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Category]
01-Oct-2022 19:40	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]