Air Display 1 – 18/09/1948

Air Display 1 – 18/09/1948

SQD. LDR. F. G. SHAW (R.A.F.) DIED
FLT. LT. S. HEDLEY (R.A.F.) DIED

DETAILS OF ACCIDENT
Squadron Leader Shaw and Flight Lieutenant Hedley died whilst flying in the 8th anniversary of the Battle of Britain commemoration air display, on 18th September 1948. Mosquito TA507 of 51MU RAF Lichfield performed a fast low-level run at 350 knots and 200 feet above ground level across the airfield, followed by a steep pull up into a climbing turn. During this manoeuvre, the Mosquito stalled, spun through three turns, and before a recovery could be made dived into the ground. It crashed into a hospital in Lichfield, killing both crew members. This was a special Battle of Britain Saturday when a large number of RAF airfields were open to the displays performed.

Extract from a contemporary report about the accident:
TRAGEDY marred the eighth anniversary of the Battle of Britain commemoration at Lichfield R.A.F. Station on Saturday.
Two R.A.F. officers were killed when the Mosquito fighter-bomber in which they were flying crashed to the ground on the north-west side of the station and burst into flames. The wife of one of the victims was among thousands of spectators who saw the fatal crash in which the well-known test-pilot, Flight-Lieutenant Stanley Hedley and his passenger, Squadron- Leader Frederick Everard Shaw, lost their lives, writes a “Mercury” reporter, who witnessed the fatality. Her husband, Flt. Lieut. Hedley was chief test pilot at the station. He was demonstrating the capabilities of the Mosquito and after a thrilling aerobatics display, proceeded to demonstrate “slow rolls.” The aircraft rolled over three times and only a short distance from the ground failed to pull out of the fourth roll, crashing not far from a farmhouse on the Curborough side of RAF Lichfield. Announcing the accident from the flying control tower an officer said the demonstration would go on. “Man proposes—God disposes,” he said. A fire-fighting demonstration in which a blazing Oxford aircraft was to be extinguished by latest firefighting means and a dummy pilot rescued from it,
was due to begin at the end of the flying display. But because of the catastrophe it was cancelled. Meanwhile Lichfield Fire Brigade assisted the unit brigade to extinguish the flames encircling the blazing machine. The bodies of the two officers were discovered lying clear of the wreckage. Flt-Lieut. Hedley, who was 24, was living at Main Street, Alrewas with his wife and four-year-old son. Squadron-Leader Shaw, a Londoner, aged 40, lived in quarters at the station. His wife is living in London. The Mayor of Lichfield (Ald. R. J. Nevill) was one of many Lichfield visitors to the Station on Saturday when it was” At Home” to the public.

It’s a sobering Thought, but the RAF lost a total of six aircraft on 18th September 1948:
A Tiger Moth at RAF Dyce
A Spitfire PR19 at RAF Leuchars
A Mosquito at RAF Lichfield
A Mosquito at RAF Manston
A Mosquito at RAF Coningsby
An Oxford at RAF Lindholme.