ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 238081
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| Date: | Thursday 29 May 1941 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Bristol Beaufighter Mk IIF |
| Owner/operator: | 32 MU RAF |
| Registration: | R2324 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | near Llanbethery, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Test |
| Departure airport: | RAF St.Athan, Vale of Glamorgan |
Beaufighter R2324: Took off for Post installation test. 29/05/1941
Broke up in flight near Llanbethery, Vale of Glamorgan. Pilot he was lucky to escape by parachute when a Beaufighter started to break up following a dive.
Crew:
P/O (89621) Reginald William SHEPPARD (pilot) RAFVR - injured;
LAC (572828) William Sydney Dennis JAMES (pass) RAF : killed
Corporal (571753) Walter James Newton WARREN (Tech.pass) RAF: killed
Anniversary of air incidents of everything south of 52* 37’N and west of 3* 11’W (Wales).
Number: 61a.
Date: 29th May 1941.
Location: Llanbethery
Aircraft: Bristol Beaufighter MkIIf R2324.
Squadron: 32 MU
From: RAF St Athan
Mission: Post instulation test.
Details:
36 Maintenance Unit at St Athan was formed on the 1st of July 1939 and its main area of expertise was the installation, maintenance, and upgrade of radar into the night fighters of the time, then the twin engine aircraft of the RAF from 1941 onwards.
On the 29th of May 1942, it was the attention of Beaufighter R2324, coming from the Bristol works at Filton in Bristol of a batch of 15 out of 289 aircraft built to mark one and 150 mark two, the main difference being, having the Rolls Royce Merlin fitted because the demand of the Bristol Hercules engine fitted to the new four engine heavies such as the Halifax and Stirling. R2324 had just had the AI radar fitted and was on its test flight with a additional radar engineer on board. It appears that they had finished their tests and were coming back to St Athan and the pilot decided to give the passenger a fun ride back with maybe some slight aerobatics, the aircraft was coming out of a shallow dive when it did a complete roll to the left followed by one and a half turns. This is then the Beaufighter simply broke up, with a wing shearing off! The pilot was lucky to bale out but the other two were trapped inside with zero chance before the aircraft ploughed into the ground near Redholme Farm at Llanbethery, there it burst into flames and burnt out by the time the emergency crash crews could reach the site. After they managed to sift through the wreckage, they could only find the remains on one of the crew, the other no trace was found!
It was found during the investigation that the main spar had snapped which cause the wing to shear off and leaving the pilot with no chance of recovery, it is unclear if the failure had occurred from an error in production or that the aerobatics. In the court Marshall/enquiry it was deemed that the aerobatics were well within the limits of the heavy fighter and there was no blame to be found. The pilot was on attachment with the Unit after being taken off operational duties after reaching his allocated limit, he was due to return to active duties at the end of the year. Sadly, he died in the crash of a Blackburn Botha which crashed into the sea off Tresilian Bay on the 8th of April 1942.
Sources:
1.AIR81/6675
2.Beaufighter production list
3.www.rafcommands.com
4.www.rafremembered.org
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 15-Jul-2020 14:49 | Nepa | Added [Operator] |
| 27-May-2022 17:08 | Davies 62 | Updated [Phase, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 19-Oct-2022 19:45 | Nepa | Updated [Location, Destination airport, Narrative, Operator] |
| 10-Nov-2022 10:26 | Nepa | Updated [Source, Narrative, Operator] |
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