London-Gatwick

Following a flight from London-Gatwick, the single engine airplane crashed upon landing at RAF Kenley and was damaged beyond repair. The pilot, sole on board, was uninjured.

Shot down by enemy fire and crashed in Gatwick. Crew fate unknown.

The aircraft was employed on the regular night mail service between Gatwick and Hanover and the crash occurred on the return flight from Hanover when the pilot was preparing to approach the vicinity of Gatwick Airport. The pilot Hattersley was, in fact, on his first ever return flight on this route with this type of aircraft, although he had flown the double journey four times previously in a DH.86. On the flight in question the pilot had been flying in cloud over most of the route and particularly over England. The weather conditions were bad with lots of low cloud at about 200 metres and there was a strong NE wind reaching as much as 60kn/h at ground level. The pilot navigated by means of W/T bearings sent from Croydon, Lympne, Pulham and Gatwick. Hattersley successfully brought the Fokker through cloud to the vicinity of the airport, and his engines were clearly heard from the ground. Control told him that they had heard him and sent a further five bearings in quick succession - no acknowledgement was received for the last bearing and the Fokker sent no further messages. Repeated attempts were made to communicate with G-AEOT but without success. Gatwick then telephoned every local police station in an endeavour to learn whether anyone had heard anything of the aircraft. A search party, including the airport ambulance and fire engine, set out. At 0610 the wireless operator (C.G.V. Wheeler) of the missing aircraft telephoned the control officer at Crawley and stated that the machine had crashed to the south of Crawley. The local ambulance was informed and it left immediately for the scene of the accident. G-AEOT had crashed into trees on Round Hill, 4 miles south of Gatwick Airport. It was upside down and extensively damaged, with the fuselage completely broken up. The flight engineer, G.R.C. Blowers, was lying injured on the ground near the machine, and Hattersley and the second pilot, V.C.W. Bredenkamp, were both dead in the wreckage.
Source: http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=925.0

The airplane departed London-Gatwick Airport on a night mail flight to Hamburg, carrying four crew members. After takeoff, while climbing, the pilot-in-command initiated a 180 turn, apparently to return to Gatwick. Doing so, the airplane lost height, impacted trees and crashed. A crew member was injured while three others were killed, including Cpt W. F. Anderson.

On the afternoon of Sunday, January 25th, 1931, an Avro 504K (serial G-AACW) crashed about 1/4 mile from Gatwick aerodrome, killing the pilot and both passengers. The airplane was a wartime machine originally manufactured under licence by G. Parnell & Coy Ltd, and had been completely rebuilt by Southern Aircraft Ltd in the spring of 1929. At the time of the last flight the airplane was not equipped with dual control, a false floor having been fitted over the control column socket and the rudder bar of the rear cockpit. The pilot, Mr. W. J. Martin, had started to learn to fly at Shoreham in February 1929, and made his first solo flight in June 1930, at which time he had received about 12 hours dual instruction. He qualified for his private licence five weeks later. Up to the day of the accident his total solo flying time was nearly 200 hours. Martin was not very experienced in aerobatics, although a few days before the accident a friend had demonstrated to him how to execute slow rolls. The first 10 minutes or so of the flight were occupied in carrying out a demonstration in which a number of machines took part and during which nothing in the nature of aerobatics was attempted. Instead of landing at the conclusion of this demonstration, the pilot climbed to a height between 1500 and 2000 feet, and then executed a maneuver which, to all expert witnesses, appeared to be an abortive attempt to roll and which developed into a spinning nosedive. Twice during its descent, G-AACW ceased to spin and momentarily assumed a straight gliding altitude, only to start spinning in the opposite direction. No one actually witnessed the crash, but the airplane had not recovered from the spin when it disappeared below the tree tops. The two passengers who died were named as Mr. S. J. W. Meathrel and Mr. L. H. Irving-Bell (Ground Engineer).
Source: www.sussexhistoryforum.co.uk