Date:	Monday 10 August 1936
Time:	02:00
Type:	Vickers Vellox
Owner/operator:	Imperial Airways Ltd
Registration:	G-ABKY
MSN:	4161
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	14-16 Hillside Gardens, Croydon, Surrey -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Initial climb
Nature:	Cargo
Departure airport:	Croydon Airport, Croydon, Surrey (EGCR)
Destination airport:	Le Bourget Airport, Paris (LFPB)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
The Vickers Vellox was a one-off two-engined version of the single-engined Vickers Vellore, of which just three were built. All four were designed as mail carriers, though it was hoped to develop the Vellox to carry passengers.

The last aircraft of the Vickers Vellore series was based on a partially completed third twin-engined Vellore airframe, fitted with a new, broader fuselage with a glazed pilots' compartment, a spatted tailwheel and powered by 600 hp (450 kW) Bristol Pegasus IM3 radials. This variant was renamed the Vickers Vellox, flying for the first time on 23.1.1934 in the hands of 'Mutt' Summers. Vickers hoped to sell the Vellox as a ten-passenger airliner and the new fuselage had five windows per side in front of large starboard side freight doors at the wing trailing edge, but the sole example was used by Imperial Airways as a freighter, mailplane, and for testing Lorenz blind landing equipment

First registered (C of R 3109) on 2.4.31 as G-ABKY to Vickers Aircraft Co. Ltd., Brooklands Aerodrome, West Byfleet, Weybridge, Surrey. C of A 4161 issued May 1931. Re-registered (C of R 6486) 11.11.35 to Imperial Airways Ltd., Croydon Airport, Croydon, Surrey.

Vickers Vellox G-ABKY crashed at 2:00 AM on 10.8.36 near Croydon Airport, Croydon, Surrey. Numbers 14 and 16 Hillside Gardens were struck. According to a contemporary report in "Flight" magazine (17.12.36 page 662):

"The Vellox Accident

IT may be remembered that on August 10 Imperial Airways' Vickers Vellox crashed three minutes after taking off from Croydon on a night flight to Paris, and the accident department of the Air Ministry has now—four months later published the findings of the inspector.

The machine, carrying only its crew, their personal belongings and some sand ballast, took off normally, flew straight in a south-westerly direction until it was well outside the aerodrome boundary and had climbed to a height estimated by officials on duty in the control tower to be in the neighbourhood of 500 feet, when it began to turn to the left—in the direction of the regular aerodrome circuit and towards its course for Paris.

Shortly afterwards the turn was changed to one to the right, through about 180 degrees, the machine losing height as it did so, and ultimately crashing among houses about a quarter of a mile outside the western boundary. An outbreak of fire occurred and the four occupants lost their lives. The machine was completely destroyed.

As a result of his investigation, the inspector of accidents came to the following conclusions:

(a) That the accident was due to a sudden loss of engine power occurring in circumstances that were unfavourable for and may even have rendered impossible—the carrying out of a successful forced landing,
(b) That the cause of the sudden loss of engine power cannot be determined, but that the evidence is suggestive of the starboard engine having been either the first or the only engine to fail, and
(c) That the most likely cause was either some obstruction of the fuel system or incorrect setting of the fuel controls.

A new type of engine was, incidentally, being used"

The four fatalities were named as:

Capt Lionel Frank Hastings Orr (aged 26) killed (pilot, Flying Officer, RAFO)
Capt Stanley Miles Fergusson (aged 32) killed (2nd pilot)
Robert Arbuckle (aged 22) killed (wireless operator)
Jeffrey Denis Dear (aged 21) killed (wireless operator)

Engine failure was blamed for the crash but it should be noted that the Vellox used the highly-regarded Bristol Pegasus 9-cylinder radial engines. These were used in the Fairey Swordfish torpedo carrier in WWII. Thousands of these engines were produced and several are still in use.

Registration G-ABKY cancelled 2.12.36 by the Air Ministry due to "destruction or permanent withdrawl from use of aircraft".

1. Belfast News-Letter - Friday 14 August 1936
2. Birmingham Daily Gazette - Friday 09 October 1936
3. Daily Herald - Friday 09 October 1936
4. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-ABKY.pdf
5. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/18/C350: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6576818
6. http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1937.htm
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Vellore
8. Flight magazine 17 December 1936: https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1936/1936%20-%203467.html
9. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-vickers-212-vellox-croydon-4-killed
10. http://afleetingpeace.org/index.php/aeroplanes/15-aeroplanes/76-register-gb-g-ab
11. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_G-A2.html
12. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=15284.0

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Sep-2008 01:00	ASN archive	Added
20-Jun-2013 08:46	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Cn, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative]
13-Nov-2017 22:24	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
05-Dec-2017 15:02	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
05-Dec-2017 15:13	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Phase, Narrative]
05-Dec-2017 15:14	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
05-Dec-2017 15:18	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
05-Dec-2017 15:19	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
28-Feb-2020 19:58	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
28-Feb-2020 20:02	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
28-Feb-2020 20:05	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
22-Jul-2020 20:44	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]