Date:	Thursday 3 May 1951
Time:	day
Type:	Vickers Wellington Mk X
Owner/operator:	201 AFS RAF
Registration:	RP341
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Thrapston Road, Brampton, 2 miles SW of Huntingdon -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Swinderby, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Vickers Wellington Mk.X RP341 of 201 AFS, crashed at Thrapston Road, Brampton, 2 miles SW of Huntingdon, 03.05.1951: The crew was performing a training sortie when the aircraft went into a dive, crossed the cloud layer and crashed onto several uninhabited houses. It seems possible that the pilot was 'Chasing' his airspeed indicator rather than using artificial horizon. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and all three crew members were killed. The three crew that were killed were:

Pilot Officer Peter Bernard Read, RAF (Pilot, aged 19)
Flight Lieutenant Richard Herbert Hitchens RAF (Navigator).
Cadet Signaller Peter William Chambers.

Nobody on ground was hurt. At the time of the accident, the aircraft was deviated from the
prescribed flight path by 56 miles for undetermined reason. According to an eyewitness report:

"This plane did not crash at RAF Brampton but about a mile away in the village at a field on Thrapston road. It severely damaged the roof of my home at 9 Bell End across the roundabout where I lived with my parents Allan and Daisy Robertson. I was a 6 year old at Brampton Primary School and actually saw the plane from the classroom window and pointed it out to my teacher that it was 'flying funny'. Later I was taken from the school to my uncle Doug Robertson's house as our house was not liveable for sometime afterwards. This is a very vivid memory for me. Patricia (Robertson) Hames".

At the time of the accident I was living at 7 Bell End with my parents George and Hilda Fairey, I remember that I was in the kitchen of the terrace house looking out of the window at my mum in the garden getting the washing in off the line. The impact of the under carriage badly damaged the roof. The upstairs rooms were damaged by aviation fuel. Fortunately as it was May no fires were burning in any of the damaged cottages. We had to live in temporary accommodation for several months while the damaged roof was repaired and my parents received less than £40 pound compensation from the Government. (Duncan Seymour Fairey
In addition, the above is confirmed and add ed to, according to a contemporary newspaper report ("Huntingdon Post" 4 May 1951):

"All three members of the crew of a Wellington bomber were killed when it crashed at Brampton. The plane grazed the tower of the church, damaged the roofs of four cottages, struck a “keep-left” sign and ploughed into the garden of a house, demolishing a summer-house. The aircraft disintegrated, the main part of the wreckage lying in the Thrapston-Huntingdon road".

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.113 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft PA100-RZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
3. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.134
4. 201 AFS ORB (Operations Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1951-1954: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 29/2143/1 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7162855
5. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?1125-Wellington-bomber&p=5791#post5791
6. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-vickers-619-wellington-x-brampton-3-killed
7. https://www.brampton-cambs-pc.gov.uk/uploads/footpath-history-geography-jan-21.pdf
8. https://www.mikevettv.ore.itk bit.ly/CambsColIection
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brampton,_Cambridgeshire

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Sep-2008 01:00	ASN archive	Added
21-Apr-2017 23:12	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Source, Narrative]
21-Apr-2017 23:24	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Source, Narrative]
23-Oct-2018 21:03	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]
26-Dec-2018 09:30	Anon.	Updated [Location, Narrative]
22-Apr-2020 12:44	Pat Hames	Updated [Narrative]
12-Dec-2020 10:00	Pat Hames	Updated [Narrative]
21-Jan-2021 22:08	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
22-Jan-2021 11:04	MiG15	Updated [Operator, Operator]
06-Feb-2022 15:52	DSFairey	Updated [Narrative]