ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 139951
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| Date: | Thursday 1 February 1945 |
| Time: | 12:25 |
| Type: | Vickers Warwick Mk V |
| Owner/operator: | Vickers Aircraft |
| Registration: | PN777 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Other fatalities: | 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | 14 & 16 Ruxley Lane, West Ewell, Epsom, Surrey -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Test |
| Departure airport: | Weybridge Airfield |
| Weybridge Airfield |
At midday on 1 February 1945, the Warwick V PN777 took off on its very first flight from Weybridge with Wing Commander Maurice Summers at the controls - an experienced test pilot from before the start of the war with more than 100 hours of flying time on Warwick's alone. He was the brother of the even more famous test pilot with Vickers, Joseph 'Mutt' Summers, who tested one of the most famous aircraft of WWII - the Spitfire. Just one other person was on board; a civilian technical observer from Vickers, Mr George Hemsley. THe purpose of the flight was further investigation of rudder overbalance, a fault which had plagued other Warwick's and which had resulted in at least two other crashes of this type in early 1945.
After take-off they climbed to 13,000 ft in good weather. Visibility was 20-30 miles, cloud six-tenths cover at 3000 ft., wind 20-25 mph from the southwest. At 13,000 ft the experiment to test the rudder controls was scheduled to commence but almost immediately they were in trouble. The rudder started to overbalance to starboard and try as he might, Wing Cdr. Summers was unable to get the aircraft back under control, so that at 1220 hrs he instructed Hemsley to bale out of the doomed aircraft, and followed him shortly afterwards.
The aircraft was observed to descend in a wide but tightening spiral to port. Hemsley was to land on farmland between the Drift Bridge and Epsom College, Reigate Road, Epsom, damaging his ankle, and being taken to Horton Hospital. Summers came down in Highfield Drive opposite the old Rembrandt cinema, suffering from a head injury either sustained on leaving the aircraft or when he was dragged along the ground on landing. He was taken to Epsom County Hospital where he was said to be well on the way to recovery from his injury at the time of the inquest in March.
The aircraft continued on its spiral path until it crashed into numbers 14 and 16 Ruxley Lane, West Ewell. No. 14 was completely demolished with the bulk of the aircraft ending up in the back garden. While there was no fire, two women about to have lunch were killed: Mrs Annie Elizabeth Swan (43) of 14 Ruxley Lane and her friend Mrs Edith May Connor (42) of 20 Ravensfield Gardens. Both the Swan and Connor families had been close friends for many years before the tragedy, and on the day the two mothers had arranged to have lunch together in Mrs Swan's house. It was here that fate took another hand in the story. Mrs Swan nipped out to buy some fish for lunch from the local shops, and for some reason did not queue but was served immediately by mutual consent. Had Mrs Swan joined the queue in the normal way the chances are that she could well have escaped, as the aircraft struck her house almost immediately after she returned home. Such are the vagaries of war. These two ladies deaths are recorded in the Borough's Book of Remembrance as having been killed by 'enemy action'.
The son of Mrs. Ann Swan told of just how he felt when he came home from Kingston Grammar School to find his mother gone and his home gone, with his sister evacuated to Scotland and his father in the Army and that all he had was what he stood up in - and this at 14 years of age! Mrs. Swan's daughter tells of her anger when she heard the news and especially at the way her family was treated by the authorities. She was even more angry later, when she realized the circumstances of the crash and the fact that the family silver disappeared did not make her feel any better.
While it was reported that hundreds of people in the area witnessed the aircraft and parachutes descending, there were four main witnesses at the inquest in March, apart from Mr Hemsley who was walking with the aid of a stick, Wing Cdr. Summers being still in hospital. The witnesses were: PC 745V Stoneham whose house was in River Way; Miss Sheila Stoneham, his daughter; PC 647W Howard, supervising a school crossing; Pilot Officer J. Hobson, an off duty RAF officer of Newbolt Avenue, Cheam; all confirmed much the same progress of events.
Sources:
http://www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/Tragedy.html
https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/515482-captain-mutt-summers-vickers-test-pilot.html
https://www.streetcheck.co.uk/postcode/kt199ff
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 18-Nov-2011 19:11 | angels one five | Added |
| 19-Nov-2011 16:43 | angels one five | Updated [Narrative] |
| 19-Nov-2011 16:52 | angels one five | Updated [Narrative] |
| 17-Sep-2013 08:07 | angels one five | Updated [Narrative] |
| 22-Sep-2013 03:51 | JINX | Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Narrative] |
| 31-Dec-2013 09:51 | angels one five | Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Narrative] |
| 08-Dec-2017 09:46 | Laurent Rizzotti | Updated [Time, Location, Source, Narrative] |
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