Date:	Saturday 27 May 1961
Time:	day
Type:	Auster J/4 Archer
Owner/operator:	Middlesex Flying Group
Registration:	G-APJM
MSN:	2091
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Near Varne Lightship, English Channel, 9 miles SW of Dover, Kent. -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Lympne, Kent (LYM/EGMK)
Destination airport:	Deauville, France
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Auster Archer G-APJM started life as Auster Arrow G-AJPU. However in 1957 it traded its Continental C75 engine for a Blackburn Cirrus engine and became G-APJM. As such it operated for about three and a half years, finally in the hands of the Middlesex Flying Group. Presumably John Duer was one of the members of that group when, on 27 May 1961, he took off from Lympne to fly to Le Touquet. However he got no further than about nine miles off Dover when, for reasons that I haven't ascertained, he ditched the Auster near to the Varne Lightship. It appears that Mr Duer survived this incident. The Archer did not. It sunk and was not recovered (even though, I presume, the water in the vicinity of the Varne Bank is relatively shallow).

A contemporary newspaper report adds a further account of the incident (The Sunday People - Sunday 28 May 1961)

'SPOT ON' DIVE SAVES AIRMAN

QUICK thinking saved 25-year-old pilot John Duer when the engine of an Auster plane he was flying to France failed over the English Channel yesterday.

Said John at Dover last night: "I was well out to sea when the engine spluttered. A little earlier I had spotted a lightship through a break in the clouds, so I glided towards it. The plane just made it. We came down in the water less than 100 yards from the lightship. I got out, swam to the lightship and they hauled me aboard with a rope."

A lifeboat took him off and landed him at Dover. Then John took a taxi to Lympne Airport—and flew off in another plane."

Registration G-APJM formally cancelled by UK Civil Aviation Authority 1 July 1961 as "destroyed"

1. The People - Sunday 28 May 1961
2. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-APJM.pdf
3. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AJPU-1.pdf
4. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AJPU-2.pdf
5. G-APJM at Elstree Airfield (EGTR) on 14/6/58: https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1533667
6. G-APJM at Elstree Airfield (EGTR) in 1960: https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1099632/
7. http://austerhg.org/prod_list/pages.php?page=1990
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varne_Bank
9. https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses-and-lightvessels/varne-lightvessel
10. G-APJM as G-AJPU at Southend (Rochford) (SEN/EGMC) on 1/12/56: https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1421051

The Varne Light Vessel in 2014:

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-May-2008 11:10	ASN archive	Added
01-Jul-2009 23:29	VHKDK	Updated
05-Jan-2012 15:23	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Nature, Source, Damage, Narrative]
04-Jun-2012 14:04	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Embed code]
20-Mar-2014 23:33	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
29-Mar-2020 20:13	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Source, Embed code, Narrative]