ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 281683
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| Date: | Friday 9 April 1948 |
| Time: | 11:45 LT |
| Type: |  Supermarine Spitfire MK IXc |
| Owner/operator: | JVS Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu) |
| Registration: | H-14 |
| MSN: | CBAF.IX.1864 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Ochtrup, Steinfurt, North Rhine-Westphalia, BZG, West Germany -
 Germany
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | Twente Airport, Enschede, Overijssel, Netherlands (EHTW) |
MK901: Spitfire LF IX, MSN CBAF.IX 1864. Built by CBAF (Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory) with Merlin M66 engine. To 33MU RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire 5-3-44. To 1 Squadron 13-4-44. Cat C (Repairable) accident 19-7-44. Repaired on site and then issued to 165 Squadron 5-10-44. Returned to 1 Squadron 19-10-44. To AST (Air Service Training) Hamble., Hampshire 6-4-45. Struck off RAF charge upon transfer to the Royal Netherlands Air Force (Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu)) 5-7-46 as H-14. Issued to JVS Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu) at Twente Airport, Enschede, Overijssel, Netherlands (EHTW).
Written off 9-4-48 when crashed at Ochtrup, Steinfurt, North Rhine-Westphalia, BZG, West Germany. Pilot - Lieutenant Fabus (aged 23) - killed
According to a rough translation from Dutch into English of a contemporary newspaper report (Het Parool 10-4-1948 - see link #3 for the original Dutch text)
"(From our correspondent).
ENSCHEDE
10 April 1948
Yesterday, in the vicinity of Gronau in the British zone of Germany, the reserve second pilot of the Dutch Air Force, crashed with his Spitfire and died.
The plane had taken off from Twente airport at ten o'clock for a test flight. Radio contact had been broken since half-past twelve and the aircraft was reported missing, while several airfields were alerted. About five o'clock the RAF reported that a crashed Spitfire had been found in a forest. An auxiliary team from Twente airport determined that this was the missing Spitfire 14. The remains of the aircraft were placed up to eight meters in the bottom. found. Nothing is yet known about the cause. Lieutenant Fabus would be sworn in in the afternoon. He was 23 years old and enlisted as a volunteer in April 1945. He received his training as a pilot in England. The victim's father and fiancée were at the airport on Friday afternoon in connection with his swearing-in.
We learn further: Lieutenant Fabius had taken off in a Spitfire and was accompanied by another plane. After flying for about half an hour, the machines entered a very dense cloud bank, which ran from 60 to 4000 meters altitude. First, the two pilots tried to rise above the clouds. However, when this did not work, they wanted to get a better view by flying lower. They did not know, however, that the clouds hung so low. Too late. Fabius had gotten out of the cloud bank, he probably didn't have a chance to pull his plane up in time with the familiar fateful result. The pilot of the other aircraft managed to get altitude again just in time".
Ochtrup is a town in the district of Steinfurt, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated approximately 20 km west of Rheine and 20 km east of Enschede. Note that the above newspaper report gives the crash location as Gronau, which is 7 miles (11 km) to the west, and the time of the accident as 12:30 local (instead of 11:45 local)
Sources:
1. https://aircrewremembered.com/lost-rob-philips-memorial-archive-rolls-of-honour-lva-klu-1918-2009-soesterberg-monument-group-3.html
2. https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/archief/2.13.165/invnr/%401948~4213
3. "Het Parool" 10-4-48: https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/view?query=Spitfire&page=1&sortfield=date&cql%5B%5D=%28date+_gte_+%2202-04-1948%22%29&coll=ddd&redirect=true&identifier=ABCDDD:010830904:mpeg21:a0006&resultsidentifier=ABCDDD:010830904:mpeg21:a0006&rowid=8
4. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/p072.html
5. https://www.avialogs.com/spitfire-and-seafire-registry/item/86312-mk901
6. https://www.danishww2pilots.dk/aircraft.php?id=11378
7. https://allspitfirepilots.org/aircraft/MK901
8. https://ipms.nl/artikelen/nedmil-luchtvaart/vliegtuigen-s/vliegtuigen-s-spitfire
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._1_Squadron_RAF#Second_World_War
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._165_Squadron_RAF
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gronau,_North_Rhine-Westphalia
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochtrup
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 17-Aug-2022 15:49 | marcvandermaarel | Added |
| 24-Aug-2023 13:20 | Dr. John Smith | Updated |
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