Vickers Wellington Mk.III BK405 of 27 OTU, crashed near to Boylestone, Derbyshire during the mid afternoon of the 11th January 1943 while on a circuits and landings exercise from Church Broughton. The aircraft spun into the ground during 15 minutes after taking off.
|
Crew / Passengers |
Rank - if applicable |
Position e.g. Pilot |
Status |
|
Ralph Holland Tye |
Flying Officer RNZAF |
Pilot (Instructor, Screened) |
Killed |
| William Raymond Wearne | Sergeant RAAF | Pilot (u/t) | Killed |
| Ian Ross McDonald | Sergeant RAAF | Air Gunner | Killed |
| John Kerr | Sergeant | Wireless Operator / Air Gunner | Killed |
| John Stoppard Eccles | Sergeant RAAF | Air Gunner | Killed |
It would appear that the aircraft's port engine failed and the pupil pilot inadvertently feathered to starboard propeller causing a complete loss of power, the aircraft quickly stalled and entered a spin from which it did not recover, the aircraft was destroyed by fire following the crash. Sgt Eccles while serving with the R.A.A.F. was not actually Australian, he was from Timperley near Altrincham in Cheshire.
Myself stood roughly at the centre of the crash site, during our search in the late summer of 2005 we found numerous small parts of the aircraft lying on the surface where they had been brought up by years of ploughing. The JCB plant on the former airfield at Church Broughton is visible in this photograph (as a light coloured shape), halfway between my left shoulder and the tree near the right hand edge of the image.
Above are the small parts of the aircraft found lying on the surface of the field, mainly small lumps of melted alloy and fragments of perspex.