Date:	Tuesday 4 September 1956
Time:	day
Type:	Westland Wyvern S.4
Owner/operator:	831 Sqn FAA RN
Registration:	WN327
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Farm Wood, Sutton, 4 miles South of Petworth, West Sussex -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Initial climb
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RNAS Ford, (HMS Peregrine) Yapton, West Sussex
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Written off 4.9.1956: crashed at Sutton, near Pulborough West Sussex re-familiarisation flight. After take off from nearby RNAS Ford the Wyvern S.4 WN327 ("371/J") of 831 Squadron FAA RN was seen to head north towards the Arundel area. Shortly afterwards a large plume of smoke was seen rising up into the air. It is thought possible that the pilot, Lt Robert 'Bobby' Sandison, had headed in the direction of a motor racing friends house near the village of Sutton, and whilst carrying out a fly-by with flaps and undercarriage down had lost control. The pilot managed to eject but was now inverted at low level, and was killed on impacting some trees and then the ground.

After summer leave it was deemed necessary for pilots to carry out a re-familiarisation flight to re-acquaint oneself with the aircraft, and whilst carrying out this flight the pilot had lowered the flaps and undercarriage at slow speed but the automatic propeller pitch stop had failed to operate, which led to the aircraft's speed decreasing to such an extent that it entered a spin with insufficient height to recover.

Following his sons death Bobby's father Colonel Sandison had a model of a Wyvern made and cast in silver by Garrards of London, and then mounted on a wooden base. Every year afterwards this superb and fitting Sandison Trophy was presented as a memorial to Bobby to the navy pilot deemed to have shown the most outstanding qualities as a pilot and an officer.

According to a contemporary newspaper report into the death of the pilot ("West Sussex Gazette - Thursday 13 September 1956)

FORD: WYVERN CRASH INQUEST
A verdict of "Death by misadventure" was recorded on Monday by the Chichester Coroner, Mr. G. F. L. Bridgman, on Lt. Robert Edmund Sandison (21), who crashed in his plane at Farm Wood, Sutton, near Petworth, on September 4. Mr. Edmund Charman, of 512, Sutton Road, a railwayman, and Mr. Bicknell, a local gamekeeper, were out walking on the Downs at Bignor and saw the plane crash. Mr. Charman said that it looped-the-loop and then they heard a popping noise as though the engine were in trouble.

"I heard a report and I said that the pilot had probably ejected himself. As there was no sign of a parachute, we went to see the wreckage. I didn't see the pilot leave the plane. At the wreckage there he was, still in the ejector seat." Engineer Officer Anthony James Bastick said that the plane was a Wyvern, WN327, and that to the best of his knowledge it was fit for service before being flown by deceased that morning. Mr. Bridgman recorded that there was no evidence as to how this accident had happened. Lt. Sandison died from multiple injuries in the chest. His home was at Adber, near Sherborne, Dorset, and he was stationed at Ford."

The reported crash site of Sutton is a village and civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England, located six kilometres (4 miles) south of Petworth and east of the A285 road.

1. West Sussex Gazette - Thursday 13 September 1956
2. Coventry Evening Telegraph - Tuesday 4 September 1956 p.1
3. Lancashire Evening Post - Tuesday 4 September 1956 p.8
4. http://simviation.com//lair/casualty1956.htm
5. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1956.htm
6. http://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1956-59.htm
7. http://web.archive.org/web/20160820065539/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk:80/Aircraft_by_Type/WestlandWyvern.htm
8. https://www.gov.uk/search-armed-forces-memorial-roll-of-honourroll-of-honour.php?SerialNo=N2898
9. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2967.0
10. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WN
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton,_West_Sussex

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
22-Mar-2013 14:32	Dr. John Smith	Added
08-May-2013 17:59	Nepa	Updated [Operator]
12-Feb-2020 23:46	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]