Date:	Tuesday 12 December 1939
Time:	11:00
Type:	Avro Tutor Mk I
Owner/operator:	605 (County of Warwick) Sqn RAF
Registration:	K3309
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Sidlesham, 3 miles south of Chichester, West Sussex, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Tangmere, West Sussex
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Avro Tutor K3309: Written off (destroyed) 12/12/1939 when wing hit the ground while low-flying, Sidlesham, three miles south of Chichester, West Sussex (at approximate co ordinates 50.7857°N 0.79036°W).
Both crew killed:
P/O Patrick Constable Fraser (41839) RAF killed
P/O Maxtone Eric Gibson Mailer (42246) RAF killed

Although Avro Tuto K3309 was on the strength of 605 (County of Warwick) Squadron, the above two pilots were with 92 Squadron, RAF (which was also based at RAF Tangmere at the time). Hence the details of this crash - and the loss of two pilots - was recorded in the 92 Squadron ORB (Operations Record Book) (Air Ministry Form 540) as follows:

"12.12.39: Weather dull but fine. Local flying practise continued. At 10.30 hrs P/O Nailer and P/O Fraser took off in Avro Tutor K3309 borrowed from 605 Squadron for local flying and landing practise. At about 11.45 hours it was learnt from the Police that a yellow training machine had crashed near Sidlesham. This turned out to be the Tutor K3309. The C.O and Flt Lt Green went at once to the scene of the crash by car and found the aircraft a total wreck in a ditch and both Officers dead. It would appear that their aircraft had been engaged in low flying and on executing a turn near the ground it had lost height, put its port wing tips into the ground and crashed into a ditch."

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft K1000-K9999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain, 1976 page
2. http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1939a.htm
3. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2459037/fraser,-patrick-constable/
4. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2455421/mailer,-maxtone-eric-gibson/
5, http://sirius1935.wixsite.com/92squadron/form-540
6. 92 Squadron RAF ORB (Air Ministry Form 540) October 1939-May 1940: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8455510
7. https://www.twgpp.org/photograph/view/1681197

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
29-Apr-2018 15:15	Dr. John Smith	Added
09-Oct-2018 19:38	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Operator, ]
25-Jul-2024 13:25	Nepa	Updated [Time, Location, Narrative, Operator, ]