ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 94200
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| Date: | Wednesday 9 April 1958 |
| Time: | 16:06 |
| Type: |  English Electric Canberra |
| Owner/operator: | Royal Air Force (RAF) |
| Registration: | WT207 |
| MSN: | SH1712 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Monyash, Derbyshire -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Hemswell, Lincolnshire |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
The two crew had come from different military units, the pilot F/Lt de Salis was carrying out test flying for the Ministry of Supply at Pershore near Worcester and the Navigator F/O Lowe had been seconded from RAF Wittering to Hemswell.
At 16:00 (BST) the aircraft took off from Hemswell and climbed out in a westerly direction to 43,000 ft, the pilot then turned onto an easterly heading and continued to climb to 45,000 ft where the rocket motor was lit. Over the next 3 minutes 58 second they climbed to 60,000 ft where the motor was shut down.
Before the flight it had been decided that if after the first burn any HTP remained this would be used up in a second run to completely drain the HTP tank. They descended to 56,000 ft and F/Lt de Salis selected the rocket ignition which was immediately followed by a rumble and buffeting and a fire warning light for the rear bomb bay where the rocket was mounted came on, before the CO2 fire extinguisher could be operated there was an explosion. The controls went slack and mist appeared in the cockpit associated with cabin depressurization, both the pilot and navigator began their escape procedure.
F/O Lowe first jettisoned the hatch above his seat and ejected while F/Lt de Salis operated the snatch unit to pull the control column clear and ejected through the canopy.
The explosion which followed a small but very intense fire caused both wings, tail section and forward fuselage to separate while the centre section was completely destroyed. Over the next few minutes these sections fell to earth around the village of Monyash, the first part was the forward fuselage which was described as being like a torpedo. This fell into Deep Dale to the north of the village. The two wings fell close together some time later, one witness on the ground who had seen the forward fuselage fall stated that it could have been as long as 5 minutes before the wings fell to the ground. The tail fell a little to the south off Derby Lane near Summerhill Farm.
Sources:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/maycontaintracesofnuts/5885784486/
http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1958.htm
https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?59531-WK163-airborne/page2&p=1134717#post1134717
http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/crash_sites/peak-district/english-electric-canberra-wt207-monyash/
http://www.ukserials.com/images/losses/wt207.jpg
http://peakwreckhunters.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/english-electric-canberra-b-mk6-wt207.html
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 10-Apr-2013 02:02 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Date, Time, Registration, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 10-Apr-2013 13:52 | Nepa | Updated [Operator] |
| 26-Jul-2013 14:59 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Embed code] |
| 21-Mar-2015 19:17 | TB | Updated [Operator, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
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