ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 207768
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| Date: | Tuesday 18 October 1938 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: | Vickers Wellesley Mk I |
| Owner/operator: | 148 Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | K7714 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3 |
| Other fatalities: | 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Dunmow Park, Great Dunmow, Essex -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Stradishall, Newmarket, Suffolk |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Vickers Wellesley K7714, 148 Squadron, RAF Stradishall, Newmarket, Suffolk: Written off (destroyed) 18/10/38 in a "head on" mid-air collision with Wellseley K7716 (also of 148 Squadron, RAF), over Great Dunmow, Essex. All three crew of Wellseley K7714 were killed:
Pilot Officer Eric Chamberlain Wheelwright (aged 25) killed
Sgt Eric Mark Walker (aged 23) killed
AC2 Thomas Moore Boyd (aged 23) killed
All three crew of the other Wellseley (K7716) were also killed. Accrding to a newspaper article ("Mid Louth Independent" 7 September 2016)
"RAF man Thomas Boyd killed in ‘blazing meteor’ bomber crash
EVEN prior to the start of World War II, a tragedy would befall an Ardee family. In October 1938, six R.A.F. men lost their lives in a mid-air collision over Dunmow Park, Essex, and one of them was Thomas Moore Boyd (24), a native of Ardee, who had been four years with the R.A.F. and had just passed his final examination as a wireless operator.
His sister. Miss S. Boyd, and brother, Mr. J. Boyd, resided at Aughnacloy. A navigational message found on a piece of paper near one of the wrecked planes read: “What will be our position in one minute?”
An eye-witness said that the two machines—Vickers-Wellesley bombers - fell like blazing meteors."
Sources:
1. Royal Air Force Aircraft K1000-K9999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain, 1976 page 63)
2. http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1939.htm
3. https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/313304-airfield.html#post3908499
4. http://www.stedmundsburychronicle.co.uk/Chronicle/1900-1945.htm
5. Burnt out wreckage: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/gutted-vickers-wellesley-bomber-framework-two-raf-vickers-news-photo/3351595#19th-october-1938-gutted-vickers-wellesley-bomber-framework-two-raf-picture-id3351595
6. https://www.pressreader.com/ireland/mid-louth-independent/20160907/281599534944520
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 17-Mar-2018 19:23 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
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