29th April, 1945. NA Harvard near RAF Calveley

Royal Air Force North American NA-16 Harvard IIb, KF205 of No 11 (P)AFU from RAF Calveley piloted Flight Officer Bannister came down in heavy snow just beyond the airfield on the 29th April, 1945.

Bannister was flying the Harvard in a formation exercise when they were recalled to base. On his approach to Calveley he ran into heavy snow. He tried to keep the airfield in sight, however whilst carrying out a very steep turn his artificial gorizon and direction indicators were toppled and stopped working. With no instruments left to fly on, Bannister lost control and bailed out. He survived, landing in Wrexham uninjured, the Harvard however was destroyed.

16th July, 1949. Two Seafires near Wildboarclough

No 1831 Squadron of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve was based at RNAS Stretton and flew Seafire F.17s. On the 16th July, 1949 Seafires, SP325 piloted by Lieutenant Frank Dyke and SX314 piloted by Lieutenant Edward Eccles both left Stretton on a formation flying training sortie.

Shortly after leaving Stretton, Lieutenant Eccles who was acting as Lead Pilot hit poor visibility and unbeknown to him had began drifting further and further East to the high ground that forms the start of the Peak District.  He ended up flying on instruments that were telling him that he was 1,500ft above sea level.

Both Seafire’s impacted the high ground of Tagsclough Hill at high speed, Eccles hitting a dry stone wall, Dyke who was concentrating on his leader followed him into the ground. A local farmer witnessed the crash, he recalled seeing the two Seafires tear across the field , just skimming the ground, crashing just yards from where he stood.

Both pilots died, with the wreckage of the two Seafires being found close to where the wreckage of B-17G, 43-38944 lay.

1st May, 1954. English Electric Vampire near Wildboarclough

No 613 (City of Manchester) Squadron of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force was based at Ringway Airport and operated Vampire FB.5s. As with the rest of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, the squadron primarily flew at weekends by pilots who had regular weekday jobs. This often lead to pilots not gaining consistent flying practice and as such, neither their hours and ultimately their proficiency on type up.

The pilot in question on this fateful flight was South African, Flying Officer Jocelyn Davis. Mr Davis was carrying out an engineering apprenticeship at the huge MetroVics factory in Trafford Park, Manchester. He was due to return home to South Africa in September 1951 after spending three years in England. Jocelyn was also a member of the City of Johannesburg Squadron of the South African Auxiliary Air Force from where he was seconded to No 613 Squadron. 

The full circumstances and cause of the crash of Vampire FB.5, VV602 were never fully ascertained. The aircraft itself being five years old, with around 490 hours of flying time being built up on it.
Flying Officer Davis in VV602 and his 613 Squadron colleague, Flying Officer Parker in another Vampire were tasked with carrying out a cine gun exercise at an altitude of around 25,000ft over the North Sea. The weather was mixed, the cloud base being 2,000ft with the potential for occasional thunder storms forecast. Flying Officer Parker was acting as flight leader for the exercise.

The thundery showers ultimately delayed the pair’s take-off until 12.45. An hour and a quarter later than planned,  finally rolling down Ringway’s Runway 24 at 12.46, they took off together. Turning onto a 120° heading they climbed out of Ringway hitting cloud at 2,000ft as predicted. They could easily maintain their formation visually in the light, layered cloud.

The cloud started to get thicker and darker with heavy rain making it difficult to for the two aircraft to maintain visual contact. It is assumed that Flying Officer Davis lost sight of his colleague as at 6,000ft he broke formation and radioed his leader to tell him, stating that he was turning onto a heading of 140°. Immediately after this, Davis radioed again, saying that he was bailing out. Later analysis of the voice recording showed that there was no panic however they could detect clear agitation in his voice. 

At the time, Flying Officer Davis was over the aircraft graveyard that is Wildboarclough, near to the Cheshire/Staffordshire/Derbyshire border. After exiting the cloud, Davis’ Vampire was seen by witnesses to dive straight into the ground on the northern end of Wildboardclough. A parachute was seen to leave the aircraft just prior to it exploding on impact with the moor, this was found 200yds from the crash. Unfortunately when rescuers arrived, Flying Officer Davis was found to be already dead, his parachute badly damaged. Local Police reported the crash to Ringway.

In the mean time, Flight Officer Parker in the lead aircraft had managed to keep climbing, exiting the cloud at 13,500ft. In clear air he attempted to contact his colleague by radioing him, no reply was forthcoming. His next action was to radio the north west Air Traffic Control Centre in Preston to report the loss of his colleague.

After a service at St Winifreds in Heaton Chapel, Flying Officer Jocelyn Davis was buried in Manchester’s Southern Cemetry on the 7th May, 1945, a week after the crash. The investigation that followed didn’t find a reason as to why Davis bailed out in the first place, however it did conclude that his parachute had opened while he was still in the aircraft trapping him in there for too long before eventually pulling him free. He was then struck by part of the Vampire itself killing him instantly. The Court of Enquiry did state that his parachute had been so badly damaged that he was unlikely to have survived even if he hadn’t been hit by his own aircraft.

27th June, 1992, V-S Spitfire FXIV at Woodford Aerodrome

Spitfire FXIV, G-ALGT was owned by Rolls Royce and based at East Midlands Airport. It was built in 1944 as RM689 delivered to No.39 MU Colerne. Its was then allocated to the Air Fighting Development Unit at Wittering, where it was delivered on 5th August 1944. It was used to test a new wrap-around windscreen design, these tests were completed by 10th November and RM689 was allocated to No.33 MU Lyneham. It remained at Lyneham until 24th February 1945 when it was flown to No.83 Group Support Unit at Dunsfold and prepared for squadron service with No.350 (Belgian) squadron, which it joined on 1st March.

As with other 2nd TAF units, No.350 squadron was stationed in Europe in early 1945 and in April RM689 suffered damage which required the attention of No.409 Repair and Servicing Unit. The damage must have been extensive, as it was transferred to No.151 Recovery Unit before being returned to Dunsfold. It returned to its squadron on the 12th July and continued in service until 14th January 1946, when it joined No.443 (RCAF) squadron. Two months later, on 20th March, it flew to No.29 MU High Ercall, where it was placed in store, remaining there until February 1949, when it was sold to the Ministry of Supply acting on behalf of Rolls-Royce Ltd, there it was registered as G-ALGT and given a C of A on 8th June 1950. Rolls Royce moved it to  Hucknall where it was used for Griffon engine development work and then as a chase/high-speed/taxi/communications aircraft until relegated to display work in the mid-1960’s.

In 1967 it joined the cast of the Battle of Britain film and acquired a set of wing tips which it has since retained, it  was restored in 1944 camouflage as “RM619” coded “AP-D” of No.130 squadron.
The 27th June 1992 was the annual RAF Association airshow at British Aerospace’s Woodford airfield and G-ALGT was booked to fly a solo demonstration. The weather at the time of the accident was fine with no significant cloud and a surface temperature of +25°C. The display line at Woodford was orientated along the runway 25/07. The pilot, David Moore flew the Spitfire to Woodford from East Midlands. As he intended to fly back to East Midlands Airport on completion of his display, the Spitfire was refuelled so it had full tanks.

At 2.54pm in front of a large crowd, G-ALGT took-off and the pilot positioned overhead Macclesfield to await his display slot at 3.03pm. He then commenced his routine on time. Three to four minutes into his display, the pilot slowed the aircraft for a low pass along runway 25 with the landing gear and flaps extended. Having completed an intentional go-around he then performed a number of low energy manoeuvres culminating in a shallow wing over in the region of the 07 threshold to position the aircraft for a low pass along Runway 07. This was flown at a height of about 50 feet and continued some 150 metres beyond the position previously used by the pilot as his display centre. At this point, at a speed of about 210 kt, the aircraft pulled up into a looping manoeuvre. Throughout this manoeuvre the engine was heard to maintain a steady note and subsequent analysis of video recording soundtracks indicated that the propeller control had been set for an engine speed of 2400 RPM. Visual evidence from the video recordings also indicated that the RPM had remained stable throughout the manoeuvre.

The display was observed by several practising display pilots who considered that the aircraft was being flown in a spirited but not unreasonable manner. They considered that the entry speed was insufficient for a full loop and assumed that, as he passed the inverted position, the pilot intended to roll out of the manoeuvre into normal flight. This assumption was reinforced when the height achieved by the aircraft at the inverted position was seen to be too low for the loop to be completed. The pilot continued to pull through from the inverted position, however, in an attempt to complete the loop. Initially the rate of pitch was normal but, at about 150 ft, the pitch rate was seen to increase rapidly. The Spitfire then achieved a level attitude before striking the runway at 3.08pm. There was an intense fireball which lasted for some three seconds fuelled by the full tanks of fuel G-ALGT carried.

The emergency services were quickly on the scene and were able to extinguish several small fires before they took hold. Wreckage was thrown along the runway and on to the flat grassed area along its southern side. The airframe broke into its major components with sections of it coming to rest at between 800 and 900 feet from the initial impact point and the engine at about 1600 feet. The Spitfire’s wings, rear fuselage and the fuel tank section of the forward fuselage, though heavily damaged, separated as intact structures but the cockpit suffered complete disintegration and the pilot was thrown out. As a result David Moore received fatal injuries and died at the scene.
The wreckage of G-ALGT was recovered to AAIB HQ at Farnborough and examined. They confirmed as far they could the pre-impact integrity of the structure and the primary flying controls. No evidence was found that there had been any failure in the airframe or any failure or restriction in the controls which could have been a factor in the accident. The conclusions therefore lead to pilot error as the cause.

The Spitfire was flown for displays by Rolls Royce employed pilots. David Moore normally flew executive jet aircraft for the company and he regularly displayed the Spitfire on their behalf throughout the display season. He had been displaying the Spitfire since 1983 and had accumulated about 70 hours on type up to the time of the accident. Displays by G-ALGT were restricted to non-aerobatic manoeuvres until June 1990, when the wing spars were replaced. Thereafter looping manoeuvres were introduced into the display sequence. Since the re-sparing of the wings, the pilot had flown a total of 15 displays and practice displays. His last display before the accident had been on 4 May 1992.

17th November, 2012, Focke Wulf (Piaggio) P149D at Stretton Airfield

The Piaggio P.149 was an 1950s Italian utility or liaison aircraft designed and built by Piaggio. The aircraft was also built under licence by Focke-Wulf in West Germany as the FWP.149D. The aircraft in question, D-EARY had just undergone an annual maintenance check at Caernarfon Airfield, followed by a local test flight. On the day of the incident the aircraft was being returned to it’s base in North Yorkshire.

The pilot had decided to this flight with a stop at Stretton Airfield. Stretton is a disused former Royal Naval Air Station just south of Warrington. The weather forecast showed fine conditions and a surface wind of 8 to 12 knot.

On arrival overhead Stretton, the weather conditions were found to be as forecast and the pilot carried out an approach from the East to Runway 27. Being un-maintained, the runway surface was variable, with only an 18 metre strip on the north side actually in a suitable condition. The approach was into a low sun, which made judgement of height difficult. Just before touchdown, the pilot applied rudder to remove drift and align the aircraft with the runway. However, it continued just above the runway and drifted to the right. The right wing struck a large bush, which yawed the aircraft to the right and into a hedge.

The pilot attributed the accident to his continuing with the approach when the low sun and a stroboscopic effect made judgement of height difficult.

29th July, 1943. Vickers Wellington at RAF Cranage

Adjacent to RAF Cranage was a shadow factory that built Vickers Wellingtons. They were then test flown and delivered from the airfield at Cranage. On the 29th July, Wellington Mk.X, HE819 was on its third test flight when it crashed.

The Wellington was being piloted by Flight Officer Rouff who was a Royal Air Force pilot, also on board was Mr Edward Booth who was a Test Inspector from the Ministry of Aircraft Production.

The Wellington too off at 3.05pm without incident. Two hours later at 5.10pm whilst on approach to Cranage it turned into the wind in a steep and apparently perfectly controlled gliding turn to port just outside the south east border of the airfield. The Wellington slowed, it’s port wing dropped, touching the ground. The aircraft crashed into the ground immediately bursting into flames on impact.

The occupants, were both thrown out of the cockpit and trapped beneath the wreckage of a wing. Rescuer, Corporal Burton, assisted by two other airmen, attempted to rescue the occupants but all were driven back by the heat. Undeterred, Burton made another attempt alone and this time succeeded in partially lifting the burning wreckage of the wing and dragging the pilot clear. Flying Officer Dunlop, a medical officer, had arrived at the scene of the accident and on being informed that the passenger was still under the wreckage, attempted to release him. Whilst this was being done an explosion occurred but Flying Officer Dunlop continued his rescue efforts and dragged the passenger clear of the aircraft. Neither occupants survived the crash, Mr Booth dying in the ambulance on the way to the medical centre at RAF Wilmslow. The pilot, Flight Officer Rouff died from his injuries later that evening.

The crash is believed to have been caused by ‘freak’ weather conditions that occur on hot days at the south east approach to RAF Cranage. 

30th April, 1941. Boulton-Paul Defiant at Gatley

Royal Air Force Defiant N3376 of No 96 Squadron was on a night exercise practising interceptions from its base at RAF Cranage from where it had took off at 10.30pm. However it encountered problems close to Ringway. After suffering engine failure, the Defiant eventually came down in Park Road, Gatley. The pilot, Sergeant Ralls and his rear-gunner Sergeant Phillips both escaped without injury after bailing out prior to the crash.

A detailed account of this crash can be found in the book ‘Cheshire Airfields in The Second World War’ by Aldon Ferguson which I have reproduced in full below with all credit to the author.

“Sgts Ralls and Phillips flying Defiant N3376 ZJ-E had taken off at 10.30pm to carry out practice interceptions with the commanding officer, Squadron Leader Burns, taking the part of the bandit. At 10,000 ft it became apparent that all was not well with the Defiant’s engine, which had commenced to splutter and finally stopped altogether. Ralls ordered Phillips to bail out, so he swung his guns around to face starboard then opened the cupola doors, and got into a sitting position on the back of the turret with his feet on the seat. At that moment Ralls shouted, “Hang on Philpy”, as the engine had started again, only to stop almost immediately. Ralls again ordered, “Bail Out”. Phillips flung himself backwards, forgetting to undo his intercom and oxygen tube, which gave a slight tug as they parted.  Phillips commented after the incident:

“I remember a delicious sensation of falling onto the softest of feather beds, a feeling that no doubt accounts for the fact that I didn’t pull the ripcord until I had dropped approximately 2,000 feet! Then I pulled once and nothing happened except that the handle came out to about opposite my right shoulder. Twice, and the whole handle came right out of the suit and in a split second my groin had received a jerk that nust surely have split me in two but for the straps around my body which immediately took the strain and weight. I looked up and there was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen, for above me was the canopy, white and lovely in the moonlight and all the cords coming down to me. A hell of a pain in one side of my groin brought me, metaphorically speaking only, of course, back to earth, and I began to look around me. I estimated that I was about 2,000 feet above the clouds and the moon, though rather weak, showed small gaps in the clouds and through them to a dark void below.”

He saw an explosion on the ground then a small fire through one of the gaps; the aircraft had come down in Park Road, Gatley. He continued:

“For what seemed an age I floated along in almost unbearable pain which I tried to alleviate by pulling on one side of the ‘chute and taking the weight off one side of my groin. This only served to make me sway from side to side pendulum fashion and having heard of chaps being sick, I decided to try and forget the pain and think of other things. At this time I was impressed with the silence that reigned up there – not a sound of any description and when my canopy flapped in the wind it sounded like artillery fire. I was now on the tips of the cloud and gradually sank into the damp clammy blackness feeling perhaps for the first time during the jump that I was actually going down.
I started to wonder all kind of things. Where was I? Would I land in water? How did that damn quick release work? A hundred questions must have popped through my mind at the time but as I sank lower I could see white streaks in the blackness, which I took to be roads. This answered perhaps the most urgent of my questions, as I had no Mae West had I landed in water. The streaks or roads were in great profusion, so I knew that I was in a town or village and when about 200 feet up, I observed a light crawling along a road that was directly below me. It was a bicycle lamp and I could see the rider silhouetted against his light. I shouted to him and he looked around, saw nothing, and cycled on. I shouted again, all the time dropping lower and again he looked round and, again seeing nothing, he noticeably increased his speed and shot away up the road.”

In watching this man, he had not noticed where he was landing and ended up on the roof of a school, with the canopy over the roof held taut by the ridge tiles. Having been helped through a bedroom window, much to the delight of some evacuee children whose dormitory it was, he was taken to a house across the road where he was offered liquid refreshments. A telephone call to the camp summoned an ambulance and word that Ralls had landed safely about a mile away.

19th January, 1976 - Two Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.3s at the former RAF Calverley airfield

On the morning of the 19^th January 1976, four Harriers of No 233 Operational Conversion Unit left their base at RAF Wittering to carry out a training sortie over southern Cheshire. The exercise involved the Harriers carrying out attacks from different directions on a target at the former RAF Calverley close to Wardle, Nantwich. The sortie was being flown as an element of the latter stages of the OCU Harrier conversion course and consisted of two instructors flying as No 2 to the two lead student pilots. They transited to the areas as a 4-ship finger four formation with a couple of miles separation between the 2 pairs.

Part of the plan was a ground attack on the disused RAF Calverley airfield. At 12.15pm the targets first visual contact was made by the lead pair No 2 Instructor pilot who took the lead and commenced the planned attack, his lead now No 2 followed him in then followed by the 2nd pair, the second instructor being in the last aircraft. The lead aircraft exited the attack with a 270° right turn, however the last aircraft was still on his attack dive and they hit each other. The two aircraft involved were XV745 and XV754, both Harrier GR.3’s

Both pilots were killed. The pilot of XV745 was Flight Lieutenant James Downey, he didn’t manage to eject and his body was recovered still strapped into his ejector seat from the wreckage of the aircraft. The other pilot, Flight Lieutenant John Roberts did try to eject, his parachute being found near the Little Man public house at Wettenhall.

An eye-witness reported to a Nantwich Chronicle reporter shortly afterwards that he had seen “four aircraft flying very low and fast. They peeled off in twos and as they were coming back into formation, one of them seemed to misjudge his timing and a plane from the other pair hit him underneath. There was a great ball of fire in the air followed by a terrific explosion.”

Other eye-witnesses reported that wreckage “came down like confetti” and aircraft parts were spread over a wide area. Several fell near the Little Man and others in the fields of Elms Farm, Calveley. An 11,000-volt power cable was brought down and some homes were without power for three hours.

The two pilots were later identified as 29-year-old Flight Lieutenant James Edward Downey and 30-year-old Flight Lieutenant John Keith Roberts. Both were married with two children and from Wittering.

The following was posted on www.pprune.org by ‘Martynw’, who was one of the first service personnel to arrive at the scene:

“I was on recovery duty for any of our Whirlwinds from number 2 flying training school when we got a call that two Harrier jump jets had collided near the Welsh border just north of us in Cheshire and were down on the ground, I took a tool box and got into the Whirlwind that had been made ready along with a Junior Technician (JT) Airframe fitter. On arrival at the site we circled the remains of a Harrier the other was no were to be seen, the piece of the one we could see was only three quarters of the cockpit, the starboard side was gone and everything aft of the pilot, including the back of his head was gone, so was most of the underside of the cockpit as the lower part of the ejection seat was stuck in the mud, we landed near the wreck without shutting down, the JT and I jumped out, the Whirlwind took off straight away.

We could see two groups of buildings near us, both about 300 metres away, people were coming towards us from one of them, that turned out to be Elms farm whose land we were on, I could see a road next to the other group of buildings so I sent the JT to investigate it, maybe they knew where the other aircraft was. The people approaching me had seen us get out of the Whirlwind, I was wearing a cold weather anorak which hid my military uniform underneath it, my priority at the point in time was to secure the immediate area around the pilot as he was still sitting in a live ejection seat that was badly damaged, although it was very cold I took off my anorak so give me some authority, and there I stood in shirt sleeves with my teeth chattering by the time they reached me. I explained the danger the remains of the aircraft posed and requested they stay at least 100 metres away, shortly after that a group of policemen arrived, I requested that they form a semicircle between the aircraft and buildings and keep away everyone, especially the cameras I could see on other people who were now appearing, I fail even today to understand way people have to stop and look at accidents, it is as if this ghoulish behaviour will please their master.

About an hour after I arrived our Engineering Officer arrived, I reported all that had happened up to that point expecting him to take over, but he told me to carry on and he left, shortly after that a Whirlwind from RAF Ternhill arrived, a Chief Technician jumped out and the Whirlwind was off again, he carried with him a reel of telephone wire and a phone, he told me he was an aircraft armourer and needed to disarm the ejection seat but did not know this model so with the agreement of the farmer he laid out the telephone wire from the farm to the wreck, and spoke to an armourer at RAF Wittering twenty minutes later he gave the all clear and the pilots body was removed. As soon as the body was gone, so were all the people, only the Chief Technician and I were left, I put on my anorak as at that point I was cold right through to my bones, I was also very hungry and thirsty as I had had nothing since my breakfast before leaving my house to go the RAF Ternhill.

After about an hour or so another Whirlwind arrived with a corporal, two airmen and camping equipment, the Chief Technician jumped into the Whirlwind as they jump out, and the Whirlwind was off again. I helped the guards set up their tent as it was now beginning to get dark, then a Land Rover came bouncing across the field driver by the JT who had arrived with me, where have you been and where did you get the vehicle? I asked him, he explained that the buildings I had sent him to, to find out about the other aircraft was a pub called The Little Man and someone in the pub had loaned him the vehicle to look for the other aircraft as I had told him too. This enthusiastic young airman had drawn a map of the Cholmondeston area and plotted on it all the places where he had found pieces of aircraft, he also informed me that dozens of medical staff where combing the area to look for pieces of the other pilots body as his aircraft had blown to pieces, and they had stopped for the night and were going to stay at RAF Ternhill, so he had come to get me, so him and I could get a lift home.

At home I sat in my kitchen and cried my eyes out and I could still smell his cooked body, and that smell stayed with me for quite a few days. The next day the newspapers came out with a picture of the wreck with the pilot still in it, I was very angry, as the only photographs taken, were taken by the police, so one of them had sold it to the papers, the papers also said that the aircraft was on fire, but I think the civilians reporting this mistook the engine exploding as a fire, I saw no evidence of the pilot being burnt, he had most defiantly been very hot but not burnt, my angry was still boiling when I got to work and immediately went to our Engineering Officer to tell him what I thought of the money grabbing policeman and the ghoulish behaviour of the news people, who in my opinion had no respect for a fallen soldier or his family, I told him that I was now glad that I had resigned from the RAF and was leaving the country of my birth.”

Below is a copy of the press cutting from the Nantwich Chronicle:-