Date:	Thursday 15 August 1940
Time:	day
Type:	BA Swallow 2
Owner/operator:	Cinque Ports Flying Club
Registration:	G-AEVC
MSN:	474
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Lympne Aerodrome, Ashford, Kent -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Standing
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Lympne Aerodrome, Ashford, Kent (LYM/EGMK)
Destination airport:

Narrative:
c/no 474: Registered as G-AEVC [C of R 7713] 4.3.37 to Cinque Ports Flying Club Ltd, Lympne. C of A 5814 issued 3.3.37. Damaged in a Pilotless take-off from Lympne Aerodrome, Ashford, Kent 4.6.37; flew for about 35 mins before striking tree near Hawkinge Aerodrome, Folkestone, Kent. According to a couple of contemporary local newspaper reports:

"Western Daily Press - Saturday 5 June 1937
PILOT-LESS 'PLANE ESCAPES.
A pilot-less runaway aeroplane last night banked and circled over the towns of Hythe, Lympne and Folkestone before ending its adventures by crashing into a tree at Hawkinge. It was a Klem Swallow belonging to The Cinque Ports Flying Club and was being started outside the club hangar.

An engineer swung the propeller and when the engine started the throttle jammed. No-one was in the cockpit and the 'plane raced across the aerodrome, climbed into the south-west wind and reached a height of 200 feet. Astonished officials rushed out of their offices and saw the 'plane banking and turning over the aerodrome. Then it disappeared over the hills towards Dover. Police stations were hurriedly warned, and fire engines asked to stand-by. With ten gallons of petrol aboard the 'plane it was feared that serious damage might arise in the event of the inevitable crash.

After the machine had been in the air for 35 minutes a message was received at Lympne that the 'plane had crashed into a tree at Hawkinge and it was wrecked".

G-AEVC was repaired repair and returned to service. Withdrawn from use 4.9.39 when all civilian flying was prohibited due to the outbreak of war. Placed into storage at Lympne Aerodrome, Ashford, Kent C of A lapsed 4.6.40.

Destroyed by enemy bombing Lympne Aerodrome, Ashford, Kent 15.8.40. On 15.8.40, during the Battle of Britain, Lympne was bombed by Stuka dive-bombers of II Gruppe, StG1. All the hangars were hit and those aircraft belonging to Cinque Ports Flying Club that had not been evacuated to Sywell were destroyed in the fire. Lympne was evacuated and only available as an Emergency Landing Ground until mid-September.
Registration cancelled 11.6.41 as WFU ("Withdrawn from Use").

NOTE: Despite the above, there seems to a an alternative fate for G-AEVC. In the book by A.J.Jackson "British Civil Aircraft 1919-1972" he comments:

"With the coming of war many Swallows were impressed and mainly went to A.T.C. Squadrons as instructional airframes. One of these was the Cirrus engined G-AEVC, which had survived a pilot-less take-off from the Cinque Ports Flying Club, only to be destroyed when a hit-and-run raider bombed the H.Q. of No. 304 (Hastings) A.T.C. Squadron in 1943'. (One other source - see link #10 - gives the date as 17.10.42).

1. 'Lympne Airfield At War And Peace', Anthony J Moor (Fonthill, 2014)
2. Western Daily Press - Saturday 05 June 1937
3. A.J.Jackson (British Civil Aircraft 1919-1972) page 166
4. "Runaway Aeroplane. Pilotless Machine's 35-Minute Flight" The Times (London). Saturday, 5 June 1937. (47703), col F, p. 9.
5. Collyer, David G (1992). Lympne Airport in old photographs. Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7509-0169-1. pages 101,104, and 105.
6. https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/BK_BAMco.pdf
7. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AEVC.pdf
8. https://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=9924.0
9. https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/141205-ba-swallow-crash-4-june-1937
10. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_G-A9.html
11. National Archives (PRO Kew) RAF Lympne Operational Record Book October 1936-May 1945: File AIR 58/509 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4098514
12. National Archives (PRO Kew) RAF Hawkinge Operational Record Book for the period 1 July 1935 to 30 November 1945: File AIR 28/345 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=AIR+28%2F345
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lympne_Airport#The_Second_World_War
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Lympne#Second_World_War

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
20-Nov-2022 07:50	Drone Insider	Added