Date:	Tuesday 18 July 1950
Time:	day
Type:	Avro Anson Mk XI
Owner/operator:	Buckeburg SF RAF
Registration:	PH611
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 5
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	English Channel, 10 miles NE of Margate, Kent -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Hamburg, West Germany
Destination airport:	RAF Manston, Ramsgate, Kent (MSE/EGMH)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Avro Anson Mk.XI PH611, RAF Buckeburg Station Flight: Written off (destroyed) when ditched into the English Channel, 10 miles north east of Margate, Kent. All five persons on board (pilot, co pilot, WRAF Nurse and her two patients) survived the crash and were rescued by a passing steamer. The Anson was lost when it sank shortly after all the five person on board had evacuated from the aircraft and taken to the rubber dinghy. According to a contemporary newspaper report ("Aberdeen Journal" - Wednesday 19 July 1950):

"Plane Crashes in Sea.
A W.R.A.F. nurse calmly attended to two patients when an R.A.F. Anson plane with five on board crashed into the sea off the Kent coast yesterday. Lifeboats from Ramsgate and Margate raced to the rescue, but the five occupants of the plane had in the meantime been picked up from the aircraft's rubber dinghy by the British steamer Kilworth. The plane was bringing the two patients, both stretcher cases, from Hamburg to Manston, Kent, to undergo hospital treatment."

A further contemporary newspaper report gives more details, including naming the five persons on board ("Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer" - Wednesday 19 July 1950):

"Nurse tended patients as 'plane crashed into the sea.
A W.R.A.F. nurse calmly attended to two patients when an RAF Anson 'plane with five on board crashed into the sea off the Kent coast yesterday. Lifeboats from Margate and Ramsgate raced to the rescue but the five occupants of the 'plane had, in the meantime, been picked up from the aircraft's rubber dinghy by the 803-ton British steamer Kilworth.

The five occupants of the 'plane were: Flight Lieutenant E.O. Charlton (29) of Princes Risborough; Master Pilot D. Hellens (26), pilot of the machine; Sergeant Ethel Ferris, a W.R.A.F. nurse from B.A.O.R, and her two patients, Mrs Evelyn Gladstone (23) and Sergeant Robert Shelley R.A.S.C. (29).

The 'plane was bringing the two patients from Hamburg, Germany to Manston, Kent to undergo hospital treatment. It was approaching the coast when it developed engine trouble and the pilot could only make a pancake landing on the sea.

Both Stretcher Cases
Flight Lieutenant Charlton said "There was no panic when I called out that we were gong to have to make a forced landing in the sea. The nurse was very cool busying herself with the patients and preparing them for having to make a quick exit from the 'plane". The patients were both stretcher cases.

Soon after the five had taken to the dinghy they saw the Anson dive to the bottom of the sea. Nurse Ferris and her two patients suffered cuts and scratches and were detained for the night in Felixstowe RAF Hospital."

The female patient, Mrs Evelyn Gladstone, is shown in a different newspaper article as being the wife of a serving Army Officer. This other newspaper article also showed that the steamer Kilworth took all the rescued occupants to Harwich.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.104 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p 69
3. Air-Britain Royal Air Force Aircraft PA100-RZ999
4. The Anson File (Ray Sturtivant, Air Britain, 1988 p.129)
5. Aberdeen Journal - Wednesday 19 July 1950
6. Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Wednesday 19 July 1950
7. A Detailed History of RAF Manston 1945-1999 By Joe Bamford
8. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-avro-652-anson-xi-margate
9. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=5094.0

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Sep-2008 01:00	ASN archive	Added
04-Sep-2013 04:16	JINX	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Source, Damage, Narrative]
16-Jan-2016 20:09	JIXN	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator]
05-Feb-2020 23:34	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Total occupants, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
06-Feb-2020 09:13	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, Destination airport, Operator]
27-Dec-2020 01:39	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Destination airport, Source]