Date:	Friday 15 September 1950
Time:	day
Type:	De Havillland DH.103 Sea Hornet F.20
Owner/operator:	801 Sqn FAA RN
Registration:	VZ710
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Mavis Cottages, Gosport Road, Stubbington, Hampshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	HMS Daedalus, RNAS Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire
Destination airport:

Narrative:
De Havillland DH.103 Sea Hornet F.20: Delivered 16.12.1949 to HMS Nuthatch, RNAS Culham, RN Air Depot, Culham, Oxfordshire. To 801 Squadron, FAA RN by July 1950 as "463/C" later "456/C" when embarked aboard HMS Centaur

Written off (destroyed) 15.9.1950 when crashed at Mavis Cottages, Gosport Road, Stubbington, Hampshire (near the airfield boundary of HMS Daedalus, RNAS Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire). Aircraft was giving an aerobatic display to Argentine Cadets, when the aircraft began a loop at too low an altitude; began loop at 2,000 feet, when the minimum safe altitude for such a manoeuvre would have been 4,000 feet. Pilot - Lieutenant Eric Michael Welch DFC, AFC - was killed. According to a contemporary newspaper report ("Hampshire Telegraph" - Friday 15 September 1950)

"PILOT KILLED IN STUBBINGTON PLANE CRASH
PART of the roof of Mavis Cottages, Gosport Road, Stubbington, was torn open by large pieces of a Royal Navy Sea Hornet aircraft which crashed and exploded behind the cottages yesterday afternoon. Yet none of the six people in the cottages, including four women and a young boy, was hurt.

Pilot of the twin engine aircraft, which was from the R.N. Air Station, Lee-on-Solent, was killed instantly.

Eye-witnesses reported that the plane, which had just taken off, flew low over the aerodrome, climbed vertically, "seemed to be going to roll" and plunged straight to the ground. Following the crash the plane exploded setting light to the cottages, and sending pieces of wreckage hurtling over a wide area. A bent propeller blade flew over the road and into the hedge on the other side.

NARROW ESCAPE
Luckiest escape was that of four-year-old Victor Larder, who was playing in the back garden of his grandmother's house as the plane crashed to the ground. The back of his head was singed by flame, but Victor seemed quite unperturbed. Mrs. Larder, an invalid grandmother, came through the ordeal extremely cheerfully.

Miss Collier, one of Mrs. Larder's grand-daughters, was upstairs when the explosion occurred. The windows blew in, flames entered the room and she screamed and dashed downstairs.

A night worker, Mr. Dowling, occupant of the more severely damaged cottage, was asleep at the time of the crash. "When you have had 21 years in the Navy you don't take much notice of this," he told a Hampshire Telegraph reporter as he helped clear away the wreckage.

"PARACHUTE IN FLAMES"
Miss P. Webster, of 32, Southways, Stubbington, said she was standing in an open spot in the Gosport road, watching aircraft. "The Sea Hornet flew low, went straight up, and then straight down into the ground, and burst into flames. I saw a parachute come out in flames, and I knew the pilot had no earthly chance. There was a terrific explosion, and flames and black smoke shot up."

Mr. A. E. Smith, of Dayshe Close, Bridgemary, said he thought the aircraft had looped and failed to pull out.

GIVING DEMONSTRATION?
The pilot is believed to have been giving a flying demonstration for the benefit of visitors from the Argentine training cruiser La Argetina, which is now at Portsmouth.

Two fire appliances from Fareham and one from Titchfield, as well as naval firemen, were quickly on the scene".

Aircraft destroyed, and formally struck off charge as Cat.ZZ 26.9.1950

1. Hampshire Telegraph - Friday 15 September 1950
2. Fleet Air Arm Fixed Wing Aircraft Since 1946 (Ray Sturtivant, Mick Burrow & Lee Howard, Air Britain, 2004 p.133)
3. https://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=20369.0
4. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VZ
5. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?28548-Sub-Lieutenant-Eric-Michael-WELCH-FAA-Tangmere-DFC-(1943)-AFC-(1948)
6. https://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1950.htm

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