Date:	Tuesday 16 September 1952
Time:	21:00
Type:	Bristol 171 Sycamore HR Mk 12
Owner/operator:	ASWDU RAF
Registration:	WV782
MSN:	12899
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 4
Other fatalities:	1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Par Moor Speedway Stadium, St. Austell, Cornwall, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Demo/Airshow/Display
Departure airport:	RAF St. Mawgan, Cornwall
Destination airport:	Par Moor Speedway Stadium, St. Austell, Cornwall
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Bristol 171 Sycamore HR.12 WV782/"F-Y", ASWDU (Air Sea Warfare Development Unit), RAF: Ex-UK Civilian Regsitration G-ALTE. Written off (destroyed) 16/9/1952: crashed at Par Moor Speedway Stadium, St. Austell, Cornwall. Lost engine power during a demonstration flight and crashed into the Speedway Car Park. Several people were injured; Flying Officer G F A Bernard the aircraft's pilot, Group Captain G G Dorrett, Flight Lieutenant I S Reid and Mr R C Dove and seven others suffered very minor injuries. However, the co-pilot and a civilian were killed.

Fatalities
Flight Lieutenant John Minifie, Co-pilot
Mr J G Richards (Civilian Spectator)

This looks to have been the first Sycamore loss. According to a contemporary newspaper report (Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton, Queensland, Thursday 18 September 1952, Page 1):

HELICOPTER CRASH
LONDON, September 17
Two men died at-St Austell, Cornwall, this morning after a helicopter crashed last night in attempting a landing in the darkness before 12,000 people at the speedway stadium. Seven other people are in hospital injured. The helicopter was attempt- ing to land in the middle of the St Austell speedway stadium, using its own searchlight. As it neared the ground the machine began to sideslip, narrowly missed a section of the crowd and crashed on two unoccupied coaches. Spectators injured were hit by wreckage from the helicopter."

According to an eyewitness report:

"After leaving Yatesbury, while doing National Service, I was posted to ASWDU, St Mawgan in July 1952. The unit had two Bristol Sycamores one of which is illustrated in 'The Observers Book Of Aircraft', popular at the time. In the September one of the helicopters was due to give a display at St. Austel speedway in the interval to commemorate Battle of Britain. I was a member of the ground crew to service the aircraft if needed and we attended the display. The helicopter flew in from St. Mawgan at the start of the meeting and sat in the arena waiting for the interval.

By the time of the display it was fairly dark and the arena was lit by festooned lighting around the track. The crew were the station CO. Group Captain Dorret, our unit CO. Flt. Lt. Minifie and two others. The display started well and the helicopter demonstrated flying backwards and sideways etc., while doing the display it was noticed that the engine note suddenly changed and the aircraft had difficulty gaining altitude. The pilot decided to clear the spectators by landing in the adjacent car park but had problems with lift and the tail skid severed the lighting cable and plunged the stadium in darkness.

It was at this moment we realised he was in serious trouble and the pilot tried to land in a clear space but caught a coach and the helicopter fell onto its side. I ran to the crash, three of the crew managed to get out but the other, our CO. Flt. Lt. Minifie was seriously injured and unconscious. The police took charge of the proceedings and called an ambulance and the three survivors were well enough to say over the PA system that all was in hand. I think the rest of the match was abandoned.

Later we heard that our CO died of a fractured skull and a week or so later our unit attended a military funeral with a gun salute in St Columb Minor cemetery. How the rest of the crew only had superficial injuries and Flt. Lt. Minifie was badly injured was because he had undone his seat belt to operate a manual floodlight to light up the ground to land and when it crashed he was thrown against the helicopter,s dashboard. Apparently the episode was front page news in the 'Daily Herald', a national newspaper of the time".

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
2. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells, Kent, United Kingdom: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN 0-85130-290-4. p 134)
3. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.293
4. Folha da Noite 17 September 1952, p.1
5. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-ALTE.pdf
6. https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/90386-bristol-sycamore
7. Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton, Queensland, Thursday 18 September 1952, Page 1:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/57268652
8. Photo of wreckage: http://cornishmemory.com/item/WAT_12_178
9. https://www.helis.com/database/cn/48678/
10. https://www.biblio.com/book/sycamore-hr12-wv782-f-y-aswdu/d/295539679
11. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WV

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
18-Apr-2013 18:33	Dr. John Smith	Added
19-Apr-2013 02:13	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Total occupants, Source, Narrative]
19-Aug-2015 14:48	TB	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Source, Narrative]
23-Mar-2021 20:59	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Location, Source, Narrative]
23-Mar-2021 21:01	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
23-Mar-2021 21:04	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
23-Mar-2021 21:09	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Destination airport, Source]
24-Mar-2021 10:11	TB	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Operator]
25-Mar-2021 16:29	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]