Date:	Wednesday 24 July 1946
Time:	16:45
Type:	Vickers Wellington Mk III
Owner/operator:	CGS RAF
Registration:	BJ895
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Wykeham Abbey, near Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Leconfield, East Yorkshire
Destination airport:	RAF Leconfield, East Yorkshire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
At 15:35 hours on 24 July 1946, the crew on this aircraft took off from Leconfield airfield for its crew to carry out a fighter affiliation exercise with a Spitfire TD236, of "F" Flight Central Gunnery School, RAF piloted by S/Ldr L A Wood.

The aircraft flew in a northerly direction, met up with the Spitfire over Driffield and then, owing to low cloud, the exercises were carried out at 10,000 feet over the Scarborough area. On board the Wellington was a pilot, a gunnery instructor and three trainee air gunners.

During the exercise the Wellington was practicing taking evasive action when attacked by the fighter, it was thought that the pilot of the Wellington was made such a turn downwards, believed to have been the last of the exercise, but immediately after the last attack the Wellington went into a near vertical dive from between 6 to 7,000 feet from which the pilot did not recover.

At 16:45 hours the aircraft crashed into the grounds of Wykeham Abbey near Scarborough and while not catching fire it disintegrated on impact creating a large crater. All five on board stood no chance, they were killed instantly and the body of one of the crew was not found.

The listing below shows their trades as given by the CWGC. The resulting crash investigation reported that the aircraft had been reported as being nose-heavy in the weeks leading up to the crash, it was checked but was passed as serviceable.

The investigation listed a number of previous incidents when the aircraft had been inspected. It had been used in the prototype bouncing bomb trials and had its bomb doors removed for this. It was later converted back and on 1st December 1943 repairs were completed at Vickers factory, Weybridge.

On 17th July 1946 it was test flown and rear doors found locked up. A day later on 18th July 1946 it was test flown and the elevator trim for level flight was found incorrectly set, the cables were adjusted for correct movement. On 23rd July 1946 it was flown by F/Lt Meikle, who reported the aircraft nose heavy and the port engine was running slow. Extra ballast was added and the port engine revs were adjusted.

On 24th July 1946 it was flown by W/O Schwedoski, who reported aircraft was satisfactory. (He would be killed just two days later in the crash of Wellington BJ884 at Appleton-le-Moors - which see). The crash report concluded that the aircraft should never have been in the air on the day because of known problems with it. The crew of BJ895 were:

W/O Roland Harrison (1600786), Pilot RAFVR of High Wycombe. Buried High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
F/Lt John Christopher Haldon (161008), Air Gunnery Instructor RAFVR of Chideock, Dorset. Body not found/not recovered. Commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
W/O Frederick Christopher Stiff (931202), Air Gunner, RAFVR of Hartest, Suffolk. Buried Hartest, Suffolk.
F/Sgt Peter Ingram (1604044), Air Gunner, RAFVR, of Fulham, London. Buried Fulham, London.
W/O John Forest Armstrong (1867735), WOp/Mech Air RAFVR, of Middlesborough. Cremated Darlington, County Durham.

It is not widely known that BJ895 was the actual aircraft used for test drops of the famous Barnes-Wallis designed "bouncing bombs" that were later used by 617 Squadron RAF during the "Dam Buster Raids" ("Operation Chastise"). Test drops of the "bouncing bomb" rook place off Reculver, Kent, from 13 April1943. The footage of the test drops was later de-classified, and released to the makers of the 1954 film "The Dam Busters".

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.47. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.189
3. "RAF Write-offs 1946": Air Britain Aeromilitaria 1979 p.101: https://air-britain.com/pdfs/aeromilitaria/Aeromilitaria_1979.pdf
4. CGS RAF ORB for the period 1-1-1946 to 31-12-1950: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR29/1789: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4101499
5. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/28/W2357: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578203
6. http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/yorkshire/yorksother/bj895.html
7. https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?100899-Wellington-And-Bouncing-Bomb
8. https://www.manstonhistory.org.uk/dambuster-bouncing-bomb-tests-at-reculver-and-manston/
9. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2706523/harrison,-roland/
10. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1799095/haldon,-john-christopher/
11. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2720470/stiff,-frederick-charles/
12. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2428482/ingram,-peter/
13. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2837936/armstrong,-john-forest/
14. https://wings-on-film.fandom.com/wiki/BJ895/G.
15. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-vickers-417-wellington-iii-wykeham-abbey-5-killed
16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wykeham_Abbey

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Sep-2008 01:00	ASN archive	Added
20-Feb-2012 10:29	Anon.	Updated [Narrative]
09-Mar-2013 20:07	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
26-Jul-2013 13:42	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Narrative]
27-Apr-2017 21:27	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
29-Nov-2018 09:49	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Operator]
13-Nov-2019 17:08	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
17-Nov-2019 17:19	Anon.	Updated [Operator, Operator]
23-Nov-2019 00:18	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
15-Jun-2023 00:09	Dr. John Smith	Updated [[Source]]
15-Jun-2023 07:40	Nepa	Updated [[[Source]]]