Date:	Saturday 17 September 1932
Time:	day
Type:	Hawker Fury Mk I
Owner/operator:	25 Sqn RAF
Registration:	K2057
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Peene Farm, Newington, near RAF Hawkinge, Folkestone, Kent -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Hawkinge, Folkestone, Kent
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Hawker Fury Mk.I K2057, 25 Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) 17 September 1932 when collided with another Hawker Fury (K2055, also of 25 Squadron) in formation and abandoned near RAF Hawkinge, Folkestone, Kent. No fatalities reported.

Hawker Fury K2055, the other aircraft involved, force landed at RAF Hawkinge, making an emergency landing. It would seem that it was significantly less damaged than K2057 (which was written off) as it was repaired on site at Hawkinge and returned to service on 3 February 1934, serving with 25 Squadron again until 17 May 1934. Fury K2057 was written off as "damaged beyond economic repair". According to a contemporary newspaper report ("Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald" - Saturday 24 September 1932)

"MID-AIR COLLISION
Crash at Newington
R.A.F. PILOT'S ESCAPE.
Two flying officers of the 25th (Fighter) Squadron, Royal Air Force, stationed at Hawkinge, had remarkable escapes on Saturday when their machines came into collision at a height of about 5,000 feet over Newington. One machine crashed into a meadow near Peene Farm, Newington, after the pilot had leapt and made a safe parachute descent, whilst the other was flown back to the aerodrome at Hawkinge, although damaged.

The collision occurred when a flight of nine machines was in the air. There was a slight haze at the time, and the nine airplanes were flying in formation over the North Downs towards Newington.

CRUMPLED WING
Suddenly two of the machines touched and from the ground it could be seen that one was badly damaged, for the left wing crumpled and the machine, which was flown by Flying Officer F. P. R. Dunworth, went into a spiral dive. Before leaping from his machine at a height of about 3,000 feet F.O. Dunworth switched off his engine and then freed himself from the cockpit. His parachute opened almost immediately and the pilot landed some distance away. A part of his parachute caught in some telegraph wires, and he suffered a cut wrist and shock. The wound was attended to by Miss Harris, of Newington, and then the airman was picked up by a motor car and driven back to the aerodrome.

The disabled machine crashed into a field close by the Elham Valley railway line under one of the pylons carrying the high voltage electric cables from Folkestone to Canterbury. The machine was completely wrecked, the engine being buried some distance in the ground.

BROKEN PROPELLER
In the meantime the other machine, flown by Pilot Officer A. E. Clouston, had returned to Hawkinge although the propeller was shattered and some of the wreckage of F.O. Dunworth's plane was clinging to it. Pilot Officer Clouston handled his damaged machine superbly, and after seeing his companion jump out safely he returned to land his own plane.

Mr. Constable, a Royal Automobile Club road scout, who saw the collision, said: "It was shortly before 11 o'clock and I was watching the machines high up in the haze. All of a sudden I saw two of the 'planes touch. Immediately one of them, with its wing broken, commenced diving towards the ground in spiral fashion.

"I saw the airman jump out and his parachute opened normally for him to make a good descent. The pilot of the other machine circled two or three times and then went back to the aerodrome."

Flying Officer Dunworth's airplane crashed in a field less than 100 yards from the road which leads from Newington to Peene and the hills at the back. It narrowly missed a number of cottages in its fall."

Crew of Fury K2057:
Flying Officer Felix Patrick Raphael Dunworth RAF (pilot, Service Number 28185) - bailed out, survived with minor injuries.

1. The K File The RAF of the 1930s (James J. Halley, Air Britain, 1995)
2. Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald - Saturday 24 September 1932
3. Line up 25 Squadron Hawker Furies (K2055 nearest camera): https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/Stock-Images/Rights-Managed/MEV-10992394
4. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=13183.0

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
10-Oct-2009 06:43	JINX	Added
10-Oct-2009 06:44	JINX	Updated
24-Jan-2012 13:24	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Location, Source]
18-Jul-2013 04:53	JINX	Updated [Operator, Location, Source]
27-Nov-2014 19:38	wilbur	Updated [Operator, Location]
02-Jun-2015 06:15	Z. Zeeland	Updated [Location]
31-Oct-2019 22:29	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
01-Nov-2019 15:59	Anon.	Updated [Operator, Operator]
18-Feb-2020 00:00	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Source, Narrative]