It certainly did happen, but it looks as though it happened on 30/12/51. In Tom’s original post he enquired about a collision on 5/4/52 involving Sgt Mobberley. It would have been incredibly bad luck to have been involved in two mid-air collisions in four months!
I’m a bit confused on this one as well. From Wokka Bob’s post it seems pretty conclusive that Sgt Mobberley was flying VV539 when it collided with WA361 on 30/12/51.
Are you saying he was involved in another mid-air on 5/4/52? If this is the case it can’t have resulted in a write off as there is no record of an aircraft having been lost on that date.
A very enjoyable programme. Just one thing, did he mention that the Spitfire cannons sticking out of the ground were Oerlikons or do I need to get my ears seen to?
Does anybody know if any pilots have ever suffered a demonstrable level of radiation poisoning as a result of their close proximity to luminous instruments over a period of time?
Thankfully luminous dials do not seem to have been a problem for Cotteswold or a number of other WWII pilots who are happily still with us.
A very sad train of events which I hope will be sorted quickly. Commiserations to those involved including Charlie who I locked horns with briefly a few weeks ago. It must be that time of year as a well known ex Lightning pilot has just been banned on PPRuNe for some misdemeanour.
Thanks for an excellent potted history of ‘WF. I saw quite a lot of this aircraft, along with the other Cambrian Viscounts, during my spotting days at Speke in the 1960’s.
If you haven’t already done so, try contacting Ed Durham at Lightning Pilots. I would imagine that quite a few of the pilots registered on his site will have flown XS417. Also plenty of ex Lightning jocks on PPRuNe.
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