Date:	Sunday 13 April 1947
Time:	night
Type:	Vickers Wellington Mk X
Owner/operator:	10 ANS RAF
Registration:	NA735
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 4
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Black Boy Wood, Garston, near Watford, Hertfordshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Driffield, Yorkshire
Destination airport:	RAF Driffield, Yorkshire

Narrative:
Wellington Mk. X NA735, 10 ANS (Air Navigation School) RAF: Written off (destroyed) when crashed on a night navigation exercise on the night of 12-13 April 1947. (Aircraft routed Driffield-Woodbridge-Driffield). One of the crew of four was killed.

The Wellington Mark X was on a night navigation exercise from Driffield in Yorkshire taking off on 12 April. It was to fly a triangular course landing back at Driffield. The weather closed in and they could not get back into Driffield or their alternates - Dishforth, or Woodbridge. Running out of fuel the crew were ordered to bale out.

According to a relative of one of the crew (see link #1):

"My uncle, Sgt Stanley Goodwin, also a pilot but acting as a navigator on this flight saw the others out first then put Warrant Officer Wasiak’s parachute ready next to him and then baled out himself. The engines were still running and my uncle expected Wasiak to follow him out. It is not known what W/O Wasiak intended. My uncle came down at Waltham Cross, Essex. The aircraft crashed at Garston near Watford. W/O Wasiak was found dead near the crash suspended from a tree by his parachute harness.

This account is verified both by my uncle’s RAF logbook entries and several conversations I had with him. Also by several newspaper reports including the subsequent coroner’s inquest."

Crew Fatality:
Warrant Officer (Serjeant) Antoni M Wasiak (Service Number: P/784188) Polish Air Force, aged 26 - killed on active service 13 April,1947. Buried at Brookwood Military Cemetery, Woking, Surrey

Garston is a suburban village in Hertfordshire, England. Garston is contiguous with Watford and now, despite retaining a local identity, is effectively a suburb. It is within the Stanborough, Woodside and Meriden wards of the borough of Watford, although a small number of its streets are in Hertsmere.

1. Personal knowledge: Conversations with my uncle, Sgt Stanley Goodwin, who was second pilot & navigator instructor and sight of his log book.
2. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.67. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
3. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.290
4. 10 ANS RAF ORB for the period 1-1-1946 to 28-2-1948: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR29/1783: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4101493
5. https://niebieskaeskadra.pl/drukuj_airmen.php?id=2788
6. https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/5044223.hunting-for-a-polish-airman-who-died-in-garston/
7. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-vickers-440-wellington-x-garston-1-killed
8. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2929352/wasiak,-antoni-m./
9. https://www.ancientfaces.com/person/antoni-m-wasiak-birth-1921-death-1947/165089213
10. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17667020/antoni-m-wasiak
11. https://listakrzystka.pl/en/wasiak-antoni-marian/
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garston,_Hertfordshire

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Sep-2008 01:00	ASN archive	Added
26-Apr-2013 05:16	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Total occupants, Location, Phase, Nature, Source, Damage, Narrative]
26-Apr-2017 18:09	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
26-Apr-2017 18:09	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type]
07-Nov-2019 23:49	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Source, Narrative]
12-Nov-2019 22:29	Anon.	Updated [Operator, Operator]
14-Aug-2020 09:14	Tractorman	Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Source]
14-Aug-2020 16:58	Tractorman	Updated [Location, Narrative]
15-Aug-2020 12:26	Anon.	Updated [Total occupants]
18-May-2023 16:59	Dr. John Smith	Updated [[Total occupants]]
19-May-2023 18:38	Dr. John Smith	Updated [[[Total occupants]]]