Date:	Monday 22 December 1947
Time:	day
Type:	Piper J-3 Cub
Owner/operator:	Cecil James Packer
Registration:	G-AISW
MSN:	11780
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	North Sea, off Ostend, West Flanders -   Belgium
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Le Touquet – Côte d'Opale Airport, Pas de Calais, France (LFAT)
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Piper J-3 Cub: Ex-USAAF 43-30489. First UK registered (C of R 10941/1; C of A V.250) on 28-10-46 as G-AISW to W. S. Shackleton Ltd., Piccadilly, London W.1. Registration cancelled/lapsed upon sale 2-1-47. Sold on and re-registered (C of R 10941/2) 13-1-47 to Cecil James Packer, Chippenham, Wiltshire

Written off (destroyed) 22-12-1947 when crashed into the North Sea, off Ostend, Belgium. According to a contemporary newspaper report ("Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail" - Tuesday 23 December 1947):

"KILLED IN CHANNEL AIRCRASH
A BELGIAN fishing' boat dashed to a British private plane which crashed into heavy seas off Ostend last night, but the pilot, Cecil James Packer, was dead when picked up.

The fishing boat had watched the aircraft circling in an attempt to attract the attention of passing ships.

Mr. Packer was 37 and was proprietor of a garage at Burton, a village near Chippenham. He was married and had six children aged between 16 years and two years.

He learned to fly several years before the war and owned his own plane. His eldest daughter Dorothy, who had had some flying lessons from her father, told reporter to-day;— "Dad left home last Wednesday to take a Mr. Ron Harding, a Bristol Press photographer, to France for a few days holiday. Yesterday when we had a cable from Le Touquet that he had been delayed by bad weather and would be returning when it improved. Then last night we had a telephone message from the Air Ministry through the police telling how he had been drowned and his body washed up near Ostend."

It was learned later that Mr. Harding was not aboard the plane on its return flight. Mr Packer was proprietor of Burton Garage, near Badminton, which was at one time home to a large number of redundant aeroplanes, including the wreck of the last DH.91 Albatross G-AFDL "Fingal".

Registration G-AISW cancelled 16-2-1948 due to "destruction or permanent withdrawl from use of aircraft"

1. Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail - Tuesday 23 December 1947
2. Derby Daily Telegraph - Tuesday 23 December 1947
3. Belfast Telegraph - Tuesday 23 December 1947
4. Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser - Saturday 27 December 1947
5. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AISW.pdf
6. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=15780.0
7. http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1943_2.html
8. https://www.wiltshire-opc.org.uk/Items/Nettleton/Nettleton%20-%20Aviators%20Certificate%20-%20Cecil%20James%20Packer%201934%20(Burton).pdf

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
06-Mar-2020 23:57	Dr. John Smith	Added
06-Nov-2020 19:06	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Date, Location, Country, Source, Narrative]
19-Sep-2022 13:13	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Departure airport, Source, Narrative, Category]
07-Nov-2022 08:11	Ron Averes	Updated [Location]