18 July 1943 - 1485 Target Towing and Gunnery Flight, RAF Fulbeck - Vickers Wellington III - BK235 - W/O John W Heard RAFVR - Fighter Affiliation Demonstration
Location – Approx 1 mile south of Appleby, North Lincs. Wreckage spread over a wide area near Low Santon
Duty – Course 11 Senior Officers Assessment Course - Gunnery and Fighter Affiliation Demonstration.
1485 B and G Flight based at RAF Fulbeck
W/O John W Heard RAFVR.
F/S Daniel Breslin DFM RAFVR.
W/C Alister W S Matheson RAAF
G/C Brian E Lowe RAF
G/C Ronald V M Odbert RAF
S/L Philip Brandon-Trye RAF
Accident Report –Edited.
The pilot was detailed to fly Wellington BK235 on a fighter affiliation exercise with a Martinet and took off at 1542 hours.
Climbing to about 4000 ft the exercises were carried out as detailed. After the Wellington had completed 8 corkscrew manoeuvres satisfactorily the pilot began another corkscrew and when changing to climb to port the starboard outer mainplane became detached. The aircraft then rolled to starboard and crashed to the ground. During its descent the tailplane, elevators, rudder and rear turret became detached.
All occupants were killed. All were wearing parachute harnesses but in no case was a parachute pack attached. It is estimated the aircraft hit the ground at 200 mph.
On inspection of the scene it was found that parts of the aircraft that broke away during its terminal descent were scattered over a wide area with the starboard tailplane nearly a mile away and about 200 yards from the starboard outer mainplane.
Examination of the starboard outer mainplane showed that the top and bottom spar booms had failed adjacent to and inboard of the spar root. Both lower booms had failed in tension due to the upload of the wing. The rear boom revealed a fatigue fracture at the end of the serration. The front also showed signs of fatigue on the rear face of the boom. The top spar booms failed at the inner bolt holes and the rear top boom fracture indicated that a fatigue crack had been present on its rear face.
A detailed examination of the lower spar boom fractures was carried out by the Metallurgical department of the RAE. This confirmed the fatigue crack findings but mentions they were extremely small.
The conclusion of the report was that the accident was the result of structural failure of the starboard mainplane due to the development of fatigue cracks in the lower spar boom.
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Incidents of this type were not uncommon with around 20 involving major wing failures in Wellingtons noted over a 2 year period. The earliest known was on the 24th May 1942 when T2802 of 1483 Flt wing collapsed during a fighter affiliation exercise.
Vickers traced the problem to the design of the main spar boom joint and the materials used in the manufacture of the spar booms which had high levels of tensile strength. This could lead to fatigue cracking and structural failure. The solution was to use a modified spar boom joint using different material but this was not approved till July 1944.
The aircraft was built by Vickers Armstrong Ltd at Broughton on the 3rd September 1942 and had a total flying time of 360 hours.
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W/O John William Heard RAFVR – Pilot – 21 - 1485 Target Towing and Gunnery Flight - Son of Edward and Louisa Heard, of Ewell, Epsom, Surrey – Brigg Cemetery, North Lincolnshire
F/S Daniel Breslin DFM RAFVR – Air Gunner – 20 - Son of Daniel and Bridget Breslin, of Strabane – Strabane Cemetery, Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
W/C Alister W S Matheson RAF – Pilot – 33 - Son of William and Kathrine Matheson; husband of Nancy Elaine Matheson, of Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire - Brigg Cemetery, North Lincolnshire
G/C Brian E Lowe RAF – Pilot - Brigg Cemetery, North Lincolnshire
G/C Ronald V M Odbert RAF – Pilot – 39 - Son of Herbert Massey Odbert and Annie Emily Odbert, of Monkstown, Co. Dublin, Irish Republic. - Newark upon Trent Cemetery, Nottinghamshire.
S/L Philip Brandon-Trye RAF – Pilot - Brigg Cemetery, North Lincolnshire.
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Brian Lowe was well known with 103 Squadron RAF having been OC from April 1941 to August 1941 taking over from W/C C E Littler and being replaced by W/C R S Ryan. Lowe was OC when 103 Sqn moved from RAF Newton to RAF Elsham Wolds which was performed with great efficiency.
Written by David Fell. Photos from my own archive.
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