Test Flying Memorial
"...and everywhere the
blue sky belongs to them
and is their appointed rest
and their native country"
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
| Date | 09/10/1950 |
|---|---|
| Casualties | Flt Lt E.B. Churchill, Air Torpedo Development Unit TP |
| Aircraft | Fairey Swordfish Mk 3 NR933 |
| Took off from | Culdrose, Cornwall |
| Purpose of flight | Experimental torpedo trials in clear weather. The aircraft was ditched following an emergency call but there were delays on the Scillies and at Culdrose and Churchill was not recovered. |
| Incident location | Woolf Rock, off Lands End, Cornwall |
| Incident details | En route to Scilly ranges pilot radioed that he was ditching 15 miles east of the islands. Despite an exhaustive search by many aircraft and rescue agencies, no trace was ever found |