Date:	Wednesday 5 April 1950
Time:	22:00
Type:	Vickers Wellington Mk X
Owner/operator:	2 ANS RAF
Registration:	NC615
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	East Knowle Wood, Chiddingly, Hailsham, East Sussex, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Middleton St. George, County Durham
Destination airport:	RAF Middleton St. George, Co.Durham
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Wellington NC615 took off from RAF Middleton St. George at 18:45 hrs on the 5th April 1950. The crew of four were taking part in a navigational exercise - the Wellington proceeded around the route as briefed, under favourable weather conditions, and the last position report that they sent at 21.37 indicated that the exercise up to that time had been uneventful.

At around 22.00 hrs the aircraft was seen to lose height rapidly by the pilot of another Wellington on the same exercise, and it crashed shortly afterwards at East Knowle Wood, Chiddingly, Hailsham, East Sussex. Examination of the wreckage showed that NC615 had broken up in flight due to 'exceptional aerodynamic and other stresses'.

A witness on the ground gave the following statement;

"I heard the aircraft approaching from the direction of the coast at approximately 9.50pm. My attention was drawn to the fact that it was flying at an unusually low altitude during darkness - I estimate the altitude when first heard at not more than 1500 - 2000 ft. It was obvious that it was not a single engined aircraft as it was running at different revolutions - one appeared to be revving at high speed and the other as if it was intermittently being throttled back. When the aircraft appeared to be directly overhead, it made a rapid turn and it was then that a series of muffled explosions occurred like an engine misfiring - this was followed by a backfire - immediately the plane then went into the dive... the time lapse between the turn and the misfiring and the actual crash was exactly 11 seconds. Something prompted me to start counting when it was obvious that the aircraft was in danger of making a crash landing. A second or two before the actual crash, it appeared as though a light or fire was in the aircraft on the starboard side. The crash occurred at approximately 1.5 miles from my house".

According to a contemporary newspaper report ("Derby Daily Telegraph - Saturday 20 May 1950)

CAUSE OF CRASH A MYSTERY. Milford Man In Crew.
THE cause of the crash of a Wellington bomber in which a Milford flight-lieutenant was among the crew of four who were killed remained undetermined at the Hailsham, Sussex, inquest yesterday. A verdict of "Accidental death" was returned on the men. The bomber crashed on a farm at Chiddingly, near Hailsham, on April 5. The four members of the crew were: Pilot-Officer Gordon James Murdoch, of Ransom-street, Sunderland, captain; Signaller Albert Edward Bazen, of Blenheim-street, Hull; Flt.-Lieut. Wilfred Alfred Ryde, of Hopping-road, Milford; and Flt.- Lieut. Harry Selman, of Albion Road, New Mills, Stockport.

ON EXERCISE
The bomber was one of five on a night navigational exercise and had been in the air 3½ hours before the crash. Sergeant Hibbs, of the Heathfield police, told the East Sussex Coroner, Dr. A. C. Somerville, that the crash occurred shortly after 10 p.m. When he arrived, the fuselage was lying in a wood and blazing furiously. The bodies of Ryde and Selman were near the wreck and those of Murdoch and Bazen in a nearby field across a river. Both wore parachutes which had not opened.

EXPLODED
An eye-witness account of the aircraft's last moments was given by John Henry Shilton, a Chiddingly farmer. As the machine approached, he said, he noticed an unusual reddish light under the body. The aircraft exploded as it passed overhead, the light spread across to each engine, and there was a roar. There was a further explosion just before the aircraft hit the ground. Arthur Henry Braden, of Manor Nurseries, Horam, who heard the machine pass overhead, told the Coroner: "The noise was very, very queer to me. It seemed as if every nut and bolt was loose."

WING RIPPED OFF
Arthur E. Broomfield, Senior Investigating Officer of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, said it appeared that the aircraft had broken up in the air at an altitude of about 1,000 feet, and before it hit the ground the port wing had been ripped off. An examination had revealed no faults in workmanship or materials. "Apparently," he said, "the crash was due to loss of control. It was not possible to determine the cause."

The crew of four were killed in the crash, and the names released by the RAF were:
167575 William Alfred Ryde, Flight Lieutenant, Navigator
172996 Harry Selman, Flight Lieutenant, Navigator
591444 Gordon James Murdoch, Pilot,
1898534 Albert Edward Bazen, Signaller (II).

It is notable that, according to the "Wills & Probate" of the deceased aircrew, one of them - Pilot Gordon James Murdoch - has the "place of death" different to the others: his body was found at "The Stream Farm, Chiddingly, Surrey". At least two of the other three (Flight Lieutenants Ryde and Selman) are covered as having been found dead as "East Knowle Wood, Chiddingly, Hailsham, Sussex"

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd p.100. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p 45
3. Hull Daily Mail - Tuesday 11 April 1950
4. Derby Daily Telegraph - Saturday 20 May 1950
5. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-vickers-619-wellington-x-horam-4-killed
6. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=648.0
7. http://www.planetrace.co.uk/1950-1959_26.html
8. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=3926.0
9. National Archives (PRO Kew) File BT 233/13: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C424134
10. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/30/S2487: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578333

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Sep-2008 01:00	ASN archive	Added
17-Mar-2014 21:44	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
23-Apr-2017 22:18	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type, Destination airport, Source]
18-Oct-2019 16:12	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Source]
01-Nov-2019 19:44	Anon.	Updated [Operator, Operator]
21-Dec-2019 22:16	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
10-Feb-2020 19:29	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
10-Feb-2020 19:32	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
10-Feb-2020 22:19	Iwosh	Updated [Operator, Location, Operator]
17-Feb-2020 22:27	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Source]
18-Feb-2020 11:59	Iwosh	Updated [Operator, Operator]
18-Jul-2020 20:49	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Location, Narrative]
19-Jul-2020 08:56	T.T.Taylor	Updated [Operator, Nature, Destination airport, Narrative, Operator]