Date:	Tuesday 20 March 1945
Time:	11:25
Type:	de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito FB Mk VI
Owner/operator:	85 Sqn RAF
Registration:	NS998
MSN:	VY-W
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	The Wash, 1½ mile N of the Norfolk Coast, off Kings Lynn, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Swannington, Norfolk
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Mosquito NS998/W: Took off for a Air to Air Firing practice on the range. 20/03/1945
Turned tightly to line up with the drogue aircraft on a practise gunnery sortie, stalled and spun into the sea.
Crew:
F/Lt (111257) Gabriel Hitch ELLIS (pilot) RAFVR - killed (NCO:951747 Commission Gazetted : Tuesday 30 December, 1941)
Sgt (1600606) William Patrick REIDY (nav.) RAFVR - killed

In April 2004 the wreckage was rediscovered in The Wash off Kings Lynn. According to a report about the incident in the "Daily Telegraph" on 23 July 2004:
"60-year mystery of airmen's deaths solved as Mosquito wreck is found
By Oliver Poole
12:01AM BST
23 Jul 2004
The mystery of the final resting place of two Second World War airmen has been solved with the discovery of the remains of their Mosquito fighter-bomber in the Wash.
Almost 60 years after the plane crashed one and a half miles off the north Norfolk coast on the afternoon of March 20, 1945, their remains have been recovered after shifting channels revealed a propeller tip.
It had been hidden by layers of sand and silt until it was seen by the harbour master during a routine survey of a rarely used and only recently emerged waterway at King's Lynn in April.
A Royal Navy diving team was called from Portsmouth and the metal parts of the aircraft were identified, the wooden outer structure having rotted decades ago.
The plane had been broken into several pieces by the crash into the shallow water. The remains of F/Lt Gabriel Ellis, from Norwich, who was the pilot, were subsequently located where they had been thrown from the cockpit by the impact. His gunner, Sgt William Reidy, from Boscombe, Dorset, was found amid the debris.
Relatives of the two airmen had not known anything about them since the accident as no attempt had ever been made to find the missing de Havilland Mosquito.
The son and daughter of F/Lt Ellis visited the site yesterday morning. Sue Raftree, the Ministry of Defence case work officer, said: "The children of Ellis, who were aged one and four at the time their father's plane went down, are finding it understandably hard to cope with this after so many years.
"They did not really know their father. Their mother remarried soon after and they became part of her second family, accepting her husband as their father."
Arrangements will be made for the airmen's funerals, which are expected to be held at a military cemetery.
Two engines, two propellers and two cannon - one of which was destroyed because of fears that it contained explosives - were also recovered.
Mark Tilbury, officer in charge at the marine salvage unit, said: "We will come back during the low tides in September 2004 and have another look."

1.http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH98%20prodn%20list.txtt
2.ORB 85 Sqdn RAF
3.http://www.bcar.org.uk/1945-incident-logs
4.http://www.swannington-norfolk.co.uk/index-page6.html
5.Tony Ayling an Active member and researcher into NS998 from the fenland and west norfolk aviation museum in wisbech where the wreckage of NS998 is on display.

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

14 February 1943	DD???	85 Sqn RAF	0	RAF stn Hunsdon, Hertfordshire, England		non
7 November 1943	HK???	85 Sqn RAF	0	RAF stn West Malling, Kent, England.		min
24 December 1944	MV???	85 Sqn RAF	0	RAF stn Swannington, Norfolk, England		non
29 December 1944	MV???	85 Sqn RAF	0	RAF stn Swannington, Norfolk, England		min
2 January 1945	MV???	85 Sqn RAF	0	RAF stn Swannington, Norfolk, England		min
15 January 1945	MV565	85 Sqn RAF	2	North Sea, 1 mile off Felixstowe, near Suffolk coast, England		w/o

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
20-Dec-2010 01:35	Nepa	Added
21-Mar-2011 06:23	Anon.	Updated [Source, Narrative]
14-Oct-2011 13:37	Nepa	Updated [Source, Narrative]
17-Nov-2013 08:21	mossie	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Source, Narrative]
29-Mar-2014 11:38	Nepa	Updated [Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
07-Jun-2014 05:56	Nepa	Updated [Time, Narrative]
16-Sep-2014 18:05	wilbur	Updated [Location, Source, Narrative]
08-Nov-2014 19:59	Anon.	Updated [Source]
09-Sep-2015 19:02	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Cn]
01-May-2019 12:17	Nepa	Updated [Location, Narrative, Operator]
24-Oct-2019 22:00	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Source, Narrative]
24-Oct-2019 22:03	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
24-Oct-2019 22:06	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
29-Oct-2019 17:20	Anon.	Updated [Location, Narrative, Operator]
09-Jan-2022 23:09	Nepa	Updated [Source, Narrative, Operator]
04-Aug-2022 14:22	Rob Davis	Updated [Narrative]