ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 196553
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| Date: | Monday 15 September 1924 |
| Time: | |
| Type: | Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe |
| Owner/operator: | 17 Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | F2484 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | RAF Eastchurch, Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Initial climb |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Duxford, Cambridgeshire |
| RAF Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey, Kent | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Sopwith Snipe, F2484: Written off (destroyed) when dived in off turn, on approach to RAF Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey, Kent. 15/09/1924
Crew:
P/O Arthur Douglas Baillie (pilot) RAF - killed.
According to an eyewitness report (originally published in the Sunday Times (Australia) 21 November 1937 - see link #2):
"I once saw a friend with whom I had learned to fly burn to death before my eyes. I was a painfully junior Pilot Officer with a brand new pair of wings on my tunic when I saw him. The setting was Eastchurch aerodrome on the bleak Isle of Sheppey. My friend graced a single seat fighter Squadron, and he flew down from Duxford to lunch with me.
We ate well and drank a modicum of beer when he said "Cheerio, Jim, blast you!" and climbed into his cockpit. I propped myself against a hanger wall to see him leave for Duxford. The single seat Snipe he flew dashed fiercely along from the far boundary to take off and bounced itself into the air. It came over the hanger roofs and then he pulled it right up on its tail and round in a steep climbing turn.
Showing off is a very human failing in the air, of which I and all other pilots with me have been guilty in our time. My friend asked too much of the Snipe, and it turned and "bit" him. Half-way round its climb, far too steep, it stalled and whipped into a spin, straight down.
The Snipe hit the aerodrome like a bomb, and like a bomb it exploded into a sheet of petrol flame with its pall of black smoke. I was only yards away, and I was close behind the futile hurry of the fire engines and the blood wagon, as the ambulance is dubbed. Chemicals put the flames out quickly. Lolling dreadfully among the white froth from the chemicals was something just recognisable as ex-human.
I attended my gunnery course that afternoon according to schedule, but was more affected than by any of the many crashes I have ever seen. I was barely nineteen."
According to link 5, crash occurred due to stalling in a climbing turn at low altitude.
Sources:
1. http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1925.htm
2. http://www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=17986.0
3. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/85099207
4. Portsmouth Evening News Hampshire, England 16 Sep 1924 and 18 Sep 1924 at https://www.genesreunited.co.za/searchbna/results?memberlastsubclass=none&searchhistorykey=0&keywords=arthur%20baillie&county=hampshire%2C%20england&type=article
5. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/files/_cascards.txt
6.
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 06-Jul-2017 19:22 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
| 23-Dec-2017 16:16 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Location] |
| 01-Nov-2018 15:58 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Operator] |
| 02-Feb-2021 14:15 | Castleace | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
| 08-Jul-2023 21:01 | Nepa | Updated [[Source, Narrative]] |
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