The Official Report

Following the accident report – the RAF form 1180 – is shown below. Because it is so hard to read, I have transcribed my reading of the body text underneath.

Page 1

24th March 1954

1:45 min flight from RAF Leeming

Crash site: 7 miles N.E. Appleby at 20:45

Weater: Dark IFR

Pilot: Fling officer Briggs, 21 years old. Instrument rating: White, proficient

Navigator

Page 2

Aircraft was controlled down to 2500 ft at a distance of 5 miles from the airfiled during a QGH/GCA* and the pilot was instructed to go over to the GCA frequency, this was acknowledged by the pilot but no further contact was made with the aircraft.

The aircraft was found to have struck high ground in a shallow descent, there were no traces of fuel or fire and the condition of the engines indicated that they were not under power at the time of the impact.
From the evidence available it is assumed that the aircraft suffered complete R/T failure at the time contact was lost and the pilot climbed to a safety height of above cloud and attempted to establish his position by radar/radio aids and by looking for a break in the cloud until the a/c ran out of fuel.

Instead of bailing out he then let down on an easterly heading and the aircraft struck the xxx of the hill. The xxx agrees with the findingys of the court, the A.OC.in C xxxx that the cause of the accident was xxxxx (xxxx no tech cause established).