Info Sought – Canberra Incident Debden 11th August 1953

Or even to the right ;). But yes It would appear that there were two fields involved.

Rob

The field of corn is off-shot to the left?

I’d love to know how the engines got filled with corn when it landed in what is surely a field of sugar beet!

Adrian

Thanks Rob. I’ll pm you.

Hi Adrian, interesting photo and many thanks for posting this up. Poor thing looks like it’s just been dropped into the field. You can see the hatch for the back seaters ejection seats is missing. It also looks like the photo has been cropped or just cut on one side?!

Anyway if you can supply me with an email address I’ll see if I have something for you.

Rob

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Hi Wyvernfan and abadonna – sorry for my delay in replying.
Here’s the photo.
And thanks for the incident report abadonna.
Any more photo’s about? The son of the farmer who this photo belongs to – has been so interested in the details. So thanks again, Adrian (aka Gamekeeper)

🙂 Thanks for the replies.Is it a large area ,it seems very close to alot of suburban areas although they have probably grown over the years?

:applause: Thanks for that,glad to hear they all got out ok.Was this Otmoor near Oxford?

I Imagine it would have been as I don’t know of another Otmoor. As a lad I lived about 5-8 miles away as the crow flies and I remember on quiet winter nights hearing the practice bombs going off over there.

In 1920 the the Royal Air Force acquired Otmoor, between Oxford and Bicester, for use as a bombing range

Having looked I’d say yes to that one Gary.

Rob

:applause: Thanks for that,glad to hear they all got out ok.Was this Otmoor near Oxford?

Gary, thanks to a member on the excellent Canberra Crazy forum I now know what happened.

B.2 WH704 had previously taken off from Bassingbourn on a training flight and had just completed a bombing exercise at Otmoor. At 15,000 ft two steep climbing turns were initiated, and on levelling out both engines stopped. After the second attempt to relight had failed the pilot concentrated on trying to land somewhere. RAF Debden was chosen and a successful landing was made, but downwind and at excessive speed. The Canberra subsequently ran off the end of the runway and into a field – sustaining some damage to the fuselage and flaps, and possibly a part undercarriage collapse as well judging by the photos. But thanks to the pilots skill and nerve both crew were uninjured.

Also can a mod change the date to the 10th please. Thanks.

Rob

RAF Debden known more now as Carver Barracks is next to Saffron Walden.I would be interested to hear about this ,i lived in Walden for 30 years.

It was RAF Debden near Thaxted, Denis. The answer was confirmed to me on another forum.

Rob

And which Debden, Debden near Chigwell, Essex or the better known one near Saffron Walden?

Bump. Have none of our Essex based members heard anything about this one before??

Rob