Date & Time:
Nov 6, 1939
Type of aircraft:
Airspeed AS.10 Oxford
Operator:
Registration:
L4547
Flight Phase:
Takeoff (climb)
Flight Type:
Training
Survivors:
Yes
Schedule:
Brize Norton - Brize Norton
MSN:
14
YOM:
1937
Country:
United Kingdom
Region:
Europe
Crew on board:
2
Crew fatalities:
2
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
0
Other fatalities:
0
Total fatalities:
2
Circumstances:
The crew departed RAF Brize Norton on a local night training flight. After takeoff, while climbing to a height of about 400 feet, the pilot-in-command initiated a right turn when the airplane entered an area of heavy rain falls. Control was lost and the aircraft crashed in Black Bourton, south of the airbase. Both pilots were killed.
crew:
P/O Robert Patrick Shene Davidson,
Sgt Richard Watkin Adcock.
crew:
P/O Robert Patrick Shene Davidson,
Sgt Richard Watkin Adcock.
Probable cause:
It was determined that the accident was probably caused by the aircraft running into the heavy rain shower at four hundred feet and that Davidson failed to rely on his instruments to maintain height and direction. The enquiry also established that Peter Davidson had flown thirty eight hours in Oxfords and it was considered that his experience was in instrument flying had not been tested before he was permitted to fly at night.
