Date:	Friday 9 July 1948
Time:
Type:	Avro Lincoln B Mk 2
Owner/operator:	61 Sqn RAF
Registration:	RF518
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 7
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RAF Wittering, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:	RAF Wittering, Cambridgeshire

Narrative:
Lincoln RF518: Written off (damaged beyond repair) 9-7-48 in a landing accident at RAF Wittering, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

On touchdown at RAF Wittering, the pilot's seat slipped, and the pilot, who was still holding the control column, pulled back hard on the control column, causing the aircraft's nose to rise. The pilot then opened the throttles though the gate, but the aircraft stalled, and then hit the runway at RAF Wittering heavily with the starboard undercarriage. The force of the impact caused the tyre of the starboard undercarriage to burst.

The pilot then successfully climbed the Avro Lincoln to a safe altitude, and flew the aircraft out to The Wash, off the Holbeach Bombing Ranges where all the bombs on board were jettisoned. Lincoln RF518 then returned to RAF Wittering to make a successful wheels-up landing. All seven crew survived unharmed, but the aircraft was written off as FACE (Flying Accident Cat. E)

The subsequent Board of Inquiry attributed the collapse of the pilot's seat to wear in the gears that controlled the raising and lowering of the pilot's seat; however, the gear responsible were in a difficult to access location, and therefore such wear was not easily detected.

The pilot of Lincoln RF518 was Flying Officer D L Eley. This incident did no harm to his RAF career; he later became a senior helicopter pilot, becoming Commanding Officer of the Far East Helicopter Wing at RAF Seletar, Singapore in the mid-1960s.

1. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.25. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.409
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft PA100-RZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain 1985)
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_the_Avro_Lincoln
5. 61 Sqn RAF ORB for the period 1-1-1946 to 31-7-1950: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 27/2426/10: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8420204
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._61_Squadron_RAF#Post-war
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Wittering#Post-war_use

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
20-Apr-2023 20:54	Dr. John Smith	Added