Test Flying Memorial
"...and everywhere the
blue sky belongs to them
and is their appointed rest
and their native country"
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
| Date | 08/03/1966 |
|---|---|
| Casualties | Pilot Brian Wass and his Flight Test Observer (name not known) |
| Aircraft | Marshalls MA4 (modified Auster) VF665 |
| Took off from | Cambridge |
| Purpose of flight | Position-error measurement |
| Incident location | West Wratting, Suffolk |
| Incident details | About 50min into a flight to measure position errors, the aircraft (a high-lift research vehicle converted from an Auster T.7) was seen apparently out of control at about 3,500ft; it descended almost vertically to impact, killing both crew. No cause for the crash was released, but is thought that a trailing static tube, in the process of being hauled in, became entangled with the tail unit. |