Date:	Saturday 18 September 1948
Time:
Type:	de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito FB Mk VI
Owner/operator:	51 MU RAF
Registration:	TA507
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Curborough, near RAF stn Lichfield, Fradley, Staffordshire, England. -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Demo/Airshow/Display
Departure airport:	RAF Lichfield, Staffordshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Mosquito TA507: Took off for aerobatic display at RAF Lichfield. 18/09/1949
The aircraft was participating in a Battle of Britain air display at its home base. A fast low-level run at 350 knots and 200 feet agl was made across the airfield at RAF Lichfield, following by a steep pull up in to a climbing turn. During this manoeuvre, the Mosquito stalled, spun through three turns, and dived into the ground before a recovery could be made. Both crew were killed
Crew:
F/Lt (188021) Stanley HEDLEY (pilot) RAF - killed
A/S/Ldr (45799) Fred G. SHAW (Senior Equipment Officer) RAF - killed

From the Lichfield Mercury - Friday 24 September 1948:

"Two Officers Killed in flying Display
Sad tragedy mars Lichfield R.A.F. “At Home”

TRAGEDY marred the eighth anniversary of the Battle of Britain commemoration at Lichfield R.A.F. Station on Saturday. Two R.A.F. officers were killed when the Mosquito fighter-bomber in which they were flying crashed to the ground on the north-west side of the station and burst into flames. The wife of one of the victims was among thousands of spectators who saw the fatal crash in which the well-known test-pilot, Flight-Lieutenant Stanley Hedley and his passenger, Squadron- Leader Frederick Everard Shaw, lost their lives, writes a “Mercury reporter, who witnessed the fatality. Her husband, Flt. Lieut. Hedley, was chief test pilot at the station. He was demonstrating the capabilities of the Mosquito and after a thrilling aerobatics display, proceeded to demonstrate “slow rolls.” The aircraft rolled over three times and only a short distance from the ground failed to pull out of the fourth roll, crashing not far from a farmhouse on the Curborough side of the flying field. Announcing the accident from the flying control tower an officer said the demonstration would go on. "Man proposes—God disposes,” he said. A fire-fighting demonstration in which a blazing Oxford aircraft was to be extinguished by latest fire-fighting means and a dummy pilot rescued from it, was due to begin at the end of the flying display. But because of the catastrophe it was cancelled. Meanwhile Lichfield Fire Brigade assisted the unit brigade extinguish the flames encircling the blazing machine. The bodies of the two officers were discovered lying clear of the wreckage. Flt-Lieut. Hedley, who was 24, was living at Main Street, Alrewas with his wife and four-year-old son. Squadron-Leader Shaw, a Londoner, aged 40, lived in quarters at the station. His wife is living in London. The Mayor of Lichfield (Ald. R. J. Nevill) was one of many Lichfield visitors to the Station on Saturday when it was” At Home” to the public.

At the Thanksgiving service to commemorate the Battle of Britain at St Mary’s Church, Lichfield, on Sunday morning, the Vicar (Preb. H. S. Cresswell) prefaced his address with a reference to the accident. "I feel impelled to express not only for myself but I am sure, Mr. Mayor, for you and the citizens of Lichfield, the very deep sorrow which we feel with the commanding officer and officers of the RAF at Fradley in the tragic accident which occurred yesterday,” he said. Preb. Cresswell asked the commanding officer (Wing-commander S. G. Taylor) to express their deep sympathy to those who were nearest and dearest to the two officers who had, so tragically, passed on. Such accidents were bound to happen from time to time, they were always tragic “but how much more tragic when they occur on such occasions as yesterday,” he said. The Deputy Mayor (Cllr. W. F. L. Salloway) in proposing a toast to the R.A.F. in the Guild Room after the service expressed sympathy with the relatives of the deceased officers.

OPENING OF CORONER'S INQUEST
The Importance of Publicity

An Inquiry into the tragedy was opened at the station on Monday afternoon by the Coroner for South-East Staffordshire (Mr. J. L. Auden). Evidence of identification was given by Squadron Leader Allan who said that on Saturday he was on duty at the station in connection with the RAF At Home commemoration in connection with the Battle of Britain. At about 3 p.m. he was in a staff car on the perimeter track near to the hangar when, in consequence of something told him, he visited a field where he saw a Mosquito aircraft which had been taking part in the air display. The machine had crashed at approximately 3-30 p.m. on the northwest side of the airfield. It was completely disintegrated and was mostly burning. He saw the body of Ft.-Lieut. Hedley just clear of the debris and 20 yards away was the body of Squadron Leader Shaw. He was quite satisfied with the identiflcation of the two bodies as he knew the officers well.

Deprecated hush hush policy
In adjourning the inquiry until Monday, October 4th, the Coroner said in the old days those things had to be hushed up, but to-day there was no reason why the public should not know anything about it at all. The more they knew the better. In the past at those inquiries, they had to be very careful what they said, but he thought the more the public knew the better in every way. Therefore, he thought they should hold the inquest where any relatives or the public who wanted to know what had happened should be allowed to attend. He knew there was to be a fairly big inquiry into all those unfortunate affairs, but he considered locally that it would be much better for the general public to realise that in all the millions of miles flown how seldom those things happened. It would be very much better to let the public know than have that hush-hush business. He thought the public should not be muzzled on those things and as a great believer in the Air Force he thought it was a mistake. The general public were rather worried as to whether it was safe to to these shows at all as people in a crowd were not able even to lie down and the crash at Mansion was a typical example of that. What the public were very worried about was whether those displays should be given at the moment, although personally he was all in favour of them".

NOTE: The aircraft accident record card contains a faint reference, written in pencil, to there being "ten civilian casualties". However, this is probably an erroneous reference to the crash of Mosquito TE808 at RAF Manston, Kent the same day (see separate entry). A cross check of records at Lichfield library - and the above newspaper report - confirms that only the two crew on board Mosquito TA507 were killed in this incident

1. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH98%20prodn%20list.txtt
2. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
4. Lichfield Mercury; Newspaper report of Coroner's inquest 24 September 1948
5. ORB 51 MU RAF: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR29/1508:
6. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4101218
7. http://www.aviationarchaeology.org.uk/marg/nwcrashes1945-52.htm
8. https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/139446-fradley-lichfield-air-show-disaster-18-9-48
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Lichfield#History
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curborough_and_Elmhurst

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Mar-2010 04:31	Nepa	Added
20-Oct-2011 12:04	angels one five	Updated [Operator, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Narrative]
24-Oct-2011 13:01	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
02-Mar-2012 11:53	Nepa	Updated [Location, Departure airport]
11-Feb-2014 10:46	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Source, Narrative]
20-May-2014 08:42	Nepa	Updated [Narrative]
31-Jul-2014 12:23	Nick Slaughter	Updated [Location, Departure airport]
17-Feb-2015 18:23	TB	Updated [Operator, Location, Narrative]
17-Feb-2015 18:24	TB	Updated [Narrative]
23-Feb-2015 17:54	DB	Updated [Operator, Location, Narrative]
26-Jul-2015 12:25	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Narrative]
20-Jun-2018 14:07	angels one five	Updated [Narrative]
17-Sep-2018 19:10	Anon.	Updated [Source, Narrative]
18-Sep-2018 20:15	Anon.	Updated [Other fatalities]
03-Apr-2019 15:03	Nepa	Updated [Narrative, Operator]
19-Nov-2021 13:16	Nepa	Updated [Source, Narrative, Operator]