If it was a ‘red painted’ Sea Hawk, then it was on 26 August 1957 when the 738 Squadron’s solo display pilot, Lt D P W Kelly, failed to recover from a loop during a team rehearsal for the SBAC show and was killed when his aircraft (Sea Hawk FGA 6, XE381) crashed into a railway embankment near Arundel Sussex.

There was another accident on 1 September 1958, when Sea Hawk FGA 6 XE462 of 800 Squadron crashed at the diversion airfield at Blackbushe during SBAC display after its saddle tank caught fire; Lt Roger Dimmock ejected and suffered a broken leg.

Take your pick?

DW

Kelly wasn’t actually part of any squadron at the time of his death. He was loaned back to Ford from HMY Britannia especially for the show. This is why his headstone (in Clymping churchyard opposite the air station) has ‘HMY Britannia’ on it.