Date:	Tuesday 29 August 1950
Time:
Type:	Bristol Beaufighter TT Mk X
Owner/operator:	17 Sqn RAF
Registration:	RD751
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RAF Chivenor, Barnstaple, Devon, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Chivenor, Devon (EGDC)
Destination airport:	RAF Chivenor
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Beaufighter RD751: Written off (damaged beyond repair) 29-8-1950. The pilot (Pilot II G R A Matthews) shut down the port engine, after he saw flames and believed the the port engine was on fire. The aircraft was unable to keep flying on just one engine, and undershot the runway on approach to RAF Chivenor, Barnstaple, Devon. On contact with the ground, the aircraft was carried forwards under its own momentum, onto the runway at Chivenor, and then swung to starboard off the runway at Chivenor, causing the port undercarriage leg to collapse.

Subsequent investigations revealed that the port engine was NOT on fire, and the flames that the pilot had seen were oil from an oil leak igniting on the hot exhausts. No reported injuries to the crew of two (pilot and target winch operator)

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.105 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft PA100-RZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
3. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.79
4. Squadron ORB (Operations Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1-9-1947 to 30-4-1951: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 27/2400/13 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8419216
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._17_Squadron_RAF#Cold_War

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
29-Dec-2020 18:18	Dr. John Smith	Added
29-Dec-2020 21:02	INV	Updated [Operator, Location, Operator]
23-Jan-2022 22:31	Nepa	Updated [Time, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Narrative, Operator]