Crash Miles Magister L8136 213 Sqn ? November 11 1938

[paulmcmillan]

A website has the following for this"MA Miles Magister Mk.I. L8136 RAF "213 Sqn" Control lost, spiralled into ground,due to aerodynamic design fault at Shillington, Bedfordshire. Pilot Frederick Christie was reunited with Elizabeth Cooper in 1976 who came to his aid following the incident."

Firstly, I have found a report in a newspaper at the time which says

"Western Morning News
Sat 12 Nov 1938

PLANE HITS HUT
Workman Killed, Airmen Escape When a plane taking off from the R.A.F. aerodrome at Henlow, Beds, yesterday struck a hut in which two men were working, one of them was killed and the other injured, and the 'plane was severely damaged. This accident occurred not long after an incoming plane from the same aerodrome had come down and been damaged at Shillington. a few miles away. An officer was hurt in that mishap. The Henlow depot fire tender had left for Shillington when the other accident occurred on the Henlow aerodrome sports ground. The machine caught the hut, slewed round, and landed badly damaged on the football pitch"

The incident which the Henlow fire truck was going to is clearly Miles Magister Mk.I. L8136

However, I cannot find an officer called Frederick Christie, (there is a F J Christie at the Air Ministry) I wonder if it is the same man

Can anyone provide more detail on this accident to Miles Magister L8136 on this date, the actual pilot and if he baled out or not, I say '213 Sqn' because newspaper articles indicates the Magister was based at Henlow and 213 Sqn was based at Wittering at the time

Note: The Civilian who was killed in the hut was H. Abbiss from the Air Ministry, the man injured was called Dilley.

Thanks

[malcolm_raf]

Hi Paul

L8136 is listed as only serving with Wittering and Henlow so in 1938 was probably allocated to Wittering and hence confused with 213 Sqn.

There is no F Christie in the August 1940 AFL andd the CWGC doesn't have any F or F J Christies killed before 1942

Malcolm

[dennis_burke]

use the London Gazette indexes to check for right looking names starting in 1938 and going backwards and then you can doubel check in the Flight global magazines with 213 Sqn.

[paulmcmillan]

Guys thanks

I could not find any F Christie (other than F J Christie) at Air Ministry in AFL

whoever he was survived the war as he met his rescuer n 1976!

Paul

[davew]

Paul

the aircraft that hit the hut at Henlow was Battle K7664. Have you considered ChrisTY?

regards
DaveW

[paulmcmillan]

Dave thanks

Will consider Christy

There was a Frederick Joseph CHRISTIE #188038 in 1945 BUT NOT HIM

He was ROYAL AIR FORCE REGIMENT and commission from Corporal 906871 (Sep 1939 Enlistment)

[paulmcmillan]

I think I have found him Frederick William Christie later 3rd Officer ATA attached from RAF

Will need to see if he Not officer and in Air 78

Unless anyone has more info on him

Yes not officer....

Distinguished Flying Medal.

817067 Sergeant Frederick William CHRISTIE,
Auxiliary Air Force, No. 50 Squadron.

[paulmcmillan]

Update

213 Sqn ORB hs the following P/O B.J.E. Lane and R.F. Weatherhill involved in crash in Magister L8316 sustained minor injuries. Aircraft written off 213 Sqn were at Wittering - the only issue I have now, was did Lane and Weatherhill bale out - I suspect so as their is a an AVIA 5 Report W624 on this incident "Miles Magister Mk.I. L8136 RAF 213 Sqn Control lost, spiralled into ground,due to aerodynamic design fault. "

This leads up to a another question. What was the aircraft that crashed at Shillington, Bedfordshire? Newspaper reports state "This accident occurred not long after an incoming plane from the same aerodrome had come down and been damaged at Shillington a few miles away. An officer was hurt in that mishap." - This appears to have been the incident that Sergeant Frederick William CHRISTIE was involved in but it cannot be Magister L8316 - also reading thereport it seems more now to be a force landing as newspaper report say 'come down ' and would explain how Elizabeth Cooper came to his aid following the incident.

[paulmcmillan]

Update

Thanks to the kindness of Ross McNeill I am 100% satisfied that P/O R.F. Weatherhill (Pilot) and P/O B.J.E. Lane (passenger) were involved in the accident to 213 Sqn Magister L8316 at Shillington, Bedfordshire on this date

The overview of the accident can be read on this thread

http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?13620-If-anyone-is-going-to-Kew-soon-and-could-look-up-1-reference-for-me...

Both Weatherhill and Lane were injured and the purpose of the flight was for leave in London. Lane was going to visit his parents in Pinner. The accident was attended to by RAF Henlow

As an asdie an aviation author has Lanes dented Cigarette Tin scratched with the Serial "L8316" and date "11/11/38".

This is NOT one of my Mystery Pre-War bale outs

Finally, the only query is what is on the Aviation Safety Network for this incident which says
"Pilot Frederick Christie was reunited with Elizabeth Cooper in 1976 who came to his aid following the incident."

I wonder if Frederick William Christie was actually the pilot of 185 Sqn Battle K7664 which had an accicdent at Henlow the same day?


Kidn Regards

Paul
Paul

[ian mcleod]

Hi Paul i was interested to read your investigation into the Miles Magister L8136 incident, Frederick Christie is my great uncle and was in a Miles magister crash in shillington he told me about the incident when i was a young boy,he was alone in the aircraft Miles Magister) doing aerobatics and he experienced control problems,he fought the unfortunate situation but was unable to recover from the subsequent spin and impacted the ground,later investigation found that air flow separation of the boundary air layer over the control surfaces had occured, this caused many similar incidents to the early version of this type of aircraft which prompted a modification,as i got older i contacted my great uncle for more information but unfortunately at the time he was in his 90,s and suffering from dementia and unable to recollect the event,i looked on aviation safety network website and found the incident you also looked at for November 11 1938 after reading the description about the aircraft lost control and spiralled to the ground it could only be the incident my great uncle described to me many years earlier,after reading your investigation perhaps now the information regarding the aircraft reg/date is ambiguous i can definately confirm to you that my great uncle Frederick Christie was not involved as you concluded in the ground incident that occurred earlier that day at henlow where there was an unfortunate fatality to a member of ground staff...Best Regards