ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 283980
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| Date: | Saturday 28 June 1947 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: | Miles M.38 Messenger 2a |
| Owner/operator: | Robin Lindsay Neale |
| Registration: | G-AJEY |
| MSN: | 6359 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 5 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Baix, Ardèche 07 -
 France
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | |
c/n 6359: G-AJEY Messenger Mk.2A (155 hp Blackburn Cirrus Major III) with oval rear windows. Miles records state: No.21. Date delivered 23.6.47 at gross cost of £2,633 3s. Nil deposit but £131 13s.2d. discount given. Net balance £2,501 9s.10d. paid 9.6.47. Application for C. of A. and registration made as a Messenger by Miles Aircraft Ltd., 31.1.47. Registered 3.2.47 with C of R No.11238 as a Series IIA to Miles Aircraft Ltd, Woodley, and C of A No.9008 was issued on 23.5.47 to them.
Cancelled 2.6.47 and re-registered to T Carlyle, Birmingham 11.6.47; on G-AJEY was then borrowed by Robin Lindsay Neale, then Boulton & Paul's chief test pilot, to go on holiday.
On 28.6.47 whilst en route to his destination in the South of France with his wife, sister-in-law and two children as passengers, one blade of the fixed pitch wooden propeller cracked and the sudden, violent out-of-balance force whipped the entire engine right out of the airframe! Neale, with great presence of mind, shouted for everyone to pile into the front seats and, with the flaps wound down, he executed a safe forced landing in a field near Baix, a commune in the Ardèche department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southern France.
Although G-AJEY was apparently not too badly damaged in the forced landing it was not repaired and it is not even known whether it was recovered to England. The Neale family were repatriated in an Aerovan provided by Miles Aircraft.
Registration cancelled 28.6.47 as crashed - but as this was the date of the incident it seems unlikely... [It is well-known that Miles presented Lindsay Neale with an engineless model of the Messenger after the incident. This model, together with the offending propeller blade were recently presented by his daughter Jenny to the Boulton Paul Association for display in the Heritage Project at Smith's Aerospace, Wolverhampton.]
Sources:
1. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AJEY.pdf
2. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/archive/Archive_2001.pdf
3. https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/579299-miles-messenger.html#post9384037
4. https://thetartanterror.blogspot.com/2007/12/robin-lindsay-neale-19xx-1949.html
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baix
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 29-Sep-2022 01:58 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
| 29-Sep-2022 01:59 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Aircraft type, Nature] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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