ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 178215
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| Date: | Thursday 24 February 1938 |
| Time: | 07:30 |
| Type: | Vickers Wellesley Mk 1 |
| Owner/operator: | LRDU RAF |
| Registration: | K7734 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Aircraft missing |
| Location: | North Sea, 50 miles East of Wick, Highland -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Vickers Wellesley (Type 292) K7734 of the Long Range Development Unit, RAF: Went missing during an attempted round Britain flight. Believed crashed into the North Sea: last reported sighting 80 km (50 miles) east of Wick, Scotland en route to Shetland. Its last signal was at 7.15 a.m. on Thursday 24th February 1938 from a position near Braemar on its way to Orkney. All three crew on board missing, presumed killed:
Flt. Lt. F.S. Gardner (pilot),
F/O G.J.D. Thomson
Sgt. G. Higgs, Long Range Development Unit.
A massive Air/Sea search was mounted over the areas the aircraft should have flown, and messages were broadcast on the BBC and in newspapers asking anyone who may have any information to come forward, and a farmers wife and her daughter from Hillswick, on the north-west of Mainland Shetland, told the Scotsman newspaper that they had heard an aircraft engine to the south-west over St Magnus Bay, but the weather was hazy and no aircraft was seen. Other people claimed to have heard the aircraft at 06:40 over Longhope, Orkney, heading east, and another hearing a large engined aircraft over Lyness, Orkney.
Lerwick Coastguard HQ made enquries of all their coast watching stations, also those on Foula and Fair Isle but no aircraft had been seen. A large search took place in the Cheviot Hills after wreckage was reported being seen to the east of Langholm, but this proved not to be from the long range bomber.
There were suggestions in a national Sunday newspaper that maybe this aircraft of ''secret design'' had been stolen. This was even brought up in Parliament but dismissed by Lt Col Muirhead: ''I did hear something about that report. I can only say that, so far as we are concerned, there is no suggestion that there is any foundation for it at all''
On the 1st of March 1938, the Scotsman newspaper reports that oil had been seen off the coast of Caithness, near Wick, and that two 5 gallon oil drums washed ashore at Clyth, five miles south of Wick, which were thought to have come from K7734.
The final clue to what may have happened to K7734 came from Norway. On the 22nd March 1938 a Dunlop tail wheel was found floating off Karmo, 25 miles north of Stavanger. The wheel was identified as coming from a Wellesley aircraft by the numbers 47633 on the tyre, 24626-39 on a plate on the wheel and the symbols S29 CA2 stamped into the wheel. No other Wellesley aircraft were unaccounted for so this must be from the Long Range Development Flight.
Whatever happened to K7734 must have been very quick as no MAYDAY was sent.
The Air Ministry issued the following statement:
''Investigations which have been made concerning the loss of a Wellesley aircraft of the Long Range Development Unit on February 24th last indicate that the aircraft was lost in Scottish waters, and that certain parts of the aircraft, which were subsequently found near the coast of Norway on 22nd March, drifted from the Scottish coast during the intervening period. The aircraft appears to have struck the water with some force.''
Sources:
1. Folha da Noite 28 February 1938
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft K1000-K9999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain 1976, page 64)
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missing_aircraft
4. Flight Magazine, March 10, 1938 p. 239 at https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1938/1938%20-%200663.html
5. http://www.crashsiteorkney.com/the-mystery-of-wellesley-k7734
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 01-Aug-2015 20:33 | TB | Added |
| 06-Feb-2017 18:08 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Date, Time, Registration, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
| 07-Mar-2018 21:56 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Aircraft type] |
| 18-May-2019 12:13 | stehlik49 | Updated [Operator] |
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