Date:	Friday 8 November 1946
Time:	night
Type:	Avro Lincoln B Mk 2
Owner/operator:	ATDU RAF
Registration:	RE285
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 5
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Chirton, Vale of Pewsey, 5 miles SE of Devizes, Wiltshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Gosport, Hampshire
Destination airport:	Boscombe Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire

Narrative:
Avro Lincon RE285 (Airborne Torpedo Development Unit): Written off (destroyed) 8 November 1946 when crashed at Chirton, Vale of Pewsey, 5 miles south east of Devizes, Wiltshire

The Lincoln took off for a night sortie with a depleted and inexperienced crew: the aircraft was flying without a navigator, and with an inexperienced wireless operator. No pre-flight briefing was carried out, and the aircraft was only partially fuelled.

The crew was unable to land the aircraft at the intended destination, because there were no night landing aids available, and the aircraft had no VHF radio available. The crew were unable to fix their position by map reading, or to land at an alternative airfield. Consequently, the crew bailed out over Chirton, Wiltshire, when the Lincoln ran out of fuel.

While there were no casualties or fatalities, the subsequent Board of Inquiry deemed that there was enough evidence to Court-Martial the pilot for negligence, and "the loss of his majesty's aircraft RE285". For the co-pilot, while he escaped disciplinary sanctions, further misfortune was to follow: he was the pilot of Douglas Boston Mk III AL467, which crashed on approach to RAF Locking, Weston-Super-Mare on 22 November 1946, killing eight people when it collided with a bus (see separate entry).

Chirton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, on the southern edge of the Vale of Pewsey about 5 miles (8 km) south-east of Devizes. The parish includes the hamlet of Conock, about half a mile west of Chirton village.

Both settlements are just north the A342 Devizes-Andover Road and are reached by separate lanes from the main road. The northern boundary of the parish follows approximately the course of the river Avon, and in the south the parish extends onto Salisbury Plain.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.99 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.48
3. Air Britain Aeromilitaria 1979 p104: https://air-britain.com/pdfs/aeromilitaria/Aeromilitaria_1979.pdf
4. Royal Air Force Aircraft PA100-RZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britian)
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_the_Avro_Lincoln#1950s
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirton

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
26-May-2023 19:23	Dr. John Smith	Added
26-May-2023 19:59	Nepa	Updated