REASON FOR LOSS:

This aircraft was held by searchlights and pilot lost control. The abandoned aircraft dived into a small wood and was totally destroyed. P/O Chetham baled out unhurt and landed at Amersham, Buckinghamshire.

Flight-Lieutenant M H Brown and Pilot Officer Chetham of No.1 Squadron RAF standing by the nose of a Hawker Hurricane Mark I at Wittering, Huntingdonshire. (IWM)

During 1990 a search for the crash site was conducted with full approval of the landowner. The site was found pretty quickly after talking with the locals. A quick metal detector scan of the area produced mostly damaged .303 ammunition. However there was a dip in the ground which was giving readings on the detector. An application to the MOD for a licence to recover the aircraft was duly sought. In 1991 we received the permission we had been waiting for and licence No.681 wasissued. A search of the crash site revealed that the engine had been smashed to pieces on hitting the flinty soil of the chilterns. Above a selection of small parts recovered now in the Lumley collection.

Researched and compiled by Melvin Brownless, updated June 2013

The British Library is preserving this site for the future in the UK Web Archive at www.webarchive.org.uk All Aircrew Remembered on our Remembrance pages, are therefor not just remembered here, but also subsequently remembered and recorded as part of our nation’s history
and heritage at The British Library.

Aircrew Remembrance Society 2013 © David King, Melvin Brownless & Alexander King.