Date:	Thursday 1 June 1933
Time:	7:30 LT
Type:	de Havilland DH.60G Moth
Owner/operator:	Gravesend School of Flying
Registration:	G-AAKX
MSN:	1154
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Aircraft missing
Location:	Thames Estuary, off Isle of Grain, near Gravesend, Kent -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	Gravesend Airport, Gravesend, Kent
Destination airport:

Narrative:
c/no. 1154: DH.60G [Gipsy I] registered as G-AAKX [C of R 2117] 8.29 to Group Captain John E.A. Baldwin, RAF Wittering (where he was Commanding Officer of the Central Flying School). C of A 2172 issued 10.8.29. Registered [C of R 3966] 9.32 to Herbert Gooding, Gravesend [who was founder of Gravesend Aviation Ltd]. Registered [C of R 3985] 18.10.32 to Gravesend Aviation Ltd, and operated by Gravesend School of Flying, Gravesend Airport, Gravesend, Kent.

Missing (presumed crashed and destroyed) when lost over the Thames Estuary, in the area of the Isle of Grain, near Gravesend, Kent 1.6.33, flown by Richard Fortescue (aged 22); only small pieces of wreckage found, the loss of the pilot was presumed. If he was killed (presumably drowned) then the body was never washed ashore. According to a published source (see link #10):

"Tragedy struck the airport, when on Thursday 1 June 1933 at 7.30 p.m., a 22-year-old pupil of the Flying School disappeared in the school's de Havilland Moth (G-AAKX). The pilot, Mr. R. Fortescue, a bachelor of Chapel Lane, Isle of Grain, had flown solo for the first time in April after 5 1/2 hours of instruction and was last seen flying over the Isle of Grain heading in an Easterly direction, with enough petrol for 3 1/2 hours flying, and was assumed to have been lost at sea."

A contemporary newspaper report into the incident reported the following ("Gloucestershire Echo - Saturday 10 June 1933)

"BEACH CLUE TO MISSING AIRMAN
AEROPLANE WING STAY FOUND
A SOLUTION of the mystery concerning the young airman who has been missing from Gravesend Aerodrome is believed to have been found by the discovery of part of an aeroplane at Cliftonville, Margate, last night.

Over a week ago Mr. R. Fortescue, a pupil at the aerodrome, went for a solo flight in a Gipsy Moth machine and no more was heard of him.

A wing stay of a similar aeroplane has now been found on the beach, having been apparently washed up by the tide. Mr. H. Gooding, managing director of the Gravesend Aerodrome, states that he is convinced that the wing stay is a portion of the missing machine.

Mr. Fortescue's home was at Chapel-lane, Isle of Grain".

Registration G-AAKX cancelled 12.33 due "destruction or permanent withdrawal from use of aircraft".

The Isle of Grain is a village and the easternmost point of the Hoo Peninsula within the district of Medway in Kent, south-east England. No longer an island and now forming part of the peninsula, the area is almost all marshland and is a major habitat for diverse wetland birds.

1. Gloucestershire Echo - Friday 2 June 1933
2. Gloucestershire Echo - Saturday 3 June 1933
3. Gloucestershire Echo - Saturday 10 June 1933
4. https://ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/dh60.pdf
5. https://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/gb-registers-g-aa/g-aa-part-1?highlight=WyJnLWFha3giXQ==
6. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AAKX.pdf
7. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_G-A.html
8. http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1934.htm
9. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=15528.0
10. http://www.discovergravesham.co.uk/business-industry/gravesend-airport-1932-1958.html
11. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/military/Crashes_in_the_South_East.pdf
12. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/p011.html
13. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/archive/Archive_1982.pdf
14. http://www.ukairfieldguide.net/airfields/Gravesend
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Grain

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
12-Nov-2017 18:59	Dr. John Smith	Added
12-Nov-2017 19:00	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
12-Nov-2017 19:00	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time]
01-Mar-2020 02:04	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
01-Mar-2020 02:06	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
01-Mar-2020 02:08	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
01-Mar-2020 02:10	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
21-Nov-2023 07:22	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative, Category]