ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 208520
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Date: | Tuesday 25 July 1939 |
Time: | day |
Type: | Hawker Hart |
Owner/operator: | 12 SFTS RAF |
Registration: | K4977 |
MSN: | |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
Other fatalities: | 1 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | Longlands Field, Little Humby, 5 miles E of Grantham, Lincolnshire -
United Kingdom
|
Phase: | En route |
Nature: | Military |
Departure airport: | RAF Spitalgate, Grantham, Lincolnshire |
Destination airport: | |
Confidence Rating: | Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Narrative:Hawker Hart K4977 of 12 SFTS, RAF Spitalgate, Grantham, Lincolnshire: Written off (destroyed) 25.7.39 when collided with Bristol Blenheim L1465 of 23 Squadron, RAF at Longlands Field, Little Humby, South Kesteven, five miles east of Grantham, Lincolnshire. (At approximate co ordinates 52.884644°N 0.511296°W). One person in each aircraft was killed, one of the Blenheim crew baled out .The pilot of Hawker Hart K4977 - Acting Pilot Officer William Leonard Wright (aged 23) - was killed, as was one on the Blenheim crew:
Acting Sgt Leslie George Tarrant (aged 30) killed
Flying Officer Percy Don Walker baled out; injured
According to a contemporary report in the "Lincolnshire Echo" (on the Coroners inquest into the death of the pilot), which is the nearest thing to an "eyewitness report":
"The Coroner received a statement by Flying Officer Walker, in which he said that he performed a steep climbing turn after break-away intending to recall the flight to a southerly course, when he felt a tremendous jar The cockpit of his machine was badly damaged, and the craft fell out of control in a steep dive. His height was about 2,000 feet at the time and Sgt. Tarrant opened the sliding roof a few inches and began to buckle on his parachute. He (Walker) undid his belt, and tried to open the sliding roof a little further, but it seemed to have jammed. He eventually managed to open it just enough to abandon the machine."
Sources:
1. Royal Air Force Aircraft K1000-K9999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain, 1976 page 38)
2.
http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1939.htm 3.
http://aircrewremembered.com/blenheim-test.html 4.
http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?16019-Who-is-quot-Harry-quot-23-Sqn-Early-1939/page3&styleid=3 5.
http://www.bcar.org.uk/1930s-incident-logs#1939 6.
http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/sergeant-leslie-george-tarrant-raf-25th-july-1939.70101/ 7.
http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?18234-Pre-War-Wittering-acft-amp-personnel-losses/page2&styleid=3 8.
http://www.raf-lincolnshire.info/12fts/12fts.htm Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
31-Mar-2018 20:50 |
Dr. John Smith |
Added |
19-Oct-2018 13:35 |
Nepa |
Updated [Operator, Operator] |
21-Aug-2022 19:41 |
Lipatov Sergey |
Updated [Narrative] |
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