Date:	Friday 29 April 1955
Time:	15:05 LT
Type:	Avro Anson T Mk 22
Owner/operator:	81 Gp CF RAF
Registration:	VV358
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	1 mile South-East of RAF Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset
Destination airport:	RAF Colerne, Wiltshire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Avro Anson T.Mk.22 VV358: Delivered to the RAF 8/4/49. RAF Service career was with the Empire Radio School (coded "TDE-D"), 61 Group Communications Flight, and 81 Group Communications Flight, RAF Rudloe Manor.

Written off (damaged beyond repair) 29/4/55: Piloted by Squadron Leader C.W. Scott, Avro Anson T.22 VV358 had taken off from RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire at 14:24 hours (2:24 pm local time) bound for RAF Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. On board were the pilot, a Flight Sergeant as a co-pilot, and two passengers.

On landing at Weston-Super-Mare as 14:52 (2:52 pm local time), the Flight Sergeant co-pilot and the two passengers left the Anson, leaving Squadron Leader Scott as the sole person on board, in order to pilot the aircraft back to RAF Colerne.

Squadron Leader Scott took off from Weston-Super-Mare at 15:00 (3 pm local time) for the 15-minute flight back to base at Colerne. However, just after becoming airborne, the port engine failed, due to (it was later discovered) a malfunctioning fuel cock in that engine. The pilot attempted to maintain altitude, but lacking the engine power to make an initial climb away from the airfield, he was forced to make an emergency landing one mile south-east of the Bristol Aeroplane Company Oldmixon aircraft factory, in order to avoid rising ground and a populated area ahead.

The Anson bounced on landing from an altitude of 50 feet, and the impact forces caused the undercarriage to collapse. When the alarm was raised, the RAF Weston-Super-Mare airfield fire engine set off to the rescue, along Hutton Moor Lane (adjacent to the base of 621 VGS (Volunteer Gliding School)) from where it was thought that the fire engine could gain access to the crash site. However, the fire engine collided with a gate in the airfield perimeter fence, which left the fire engine damaged...fortunately the Anson did not catch fire!

The wreckage of Anson VV358 was recovered to (and by) 49 MU, who transported it by road to RAF Colerne (its intended destination...) for damage assessment. The Anson as deemed "damaged beyond economic repair" and Struck Off Charge at 49 MU RAF Colerne as Cat.5(c) on 19/5/55, to be broken up for spares and scrap

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.170 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985 p.90)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.130
4. Wings Over Somerset: Aircraft Crashes since the End of World War II By Peter Forrester
5. The Anson File (Ray Sturtivant, Air Britain, 1988 p,148)
6. Weston-Super-Mare and the Aeroplane By Roger Dudley, Ted Johnson
7. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VV

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
13-May-2020 23:27	Dr. John Smith	Added
14-May-2020 08:00	Boile A.	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Operator]