Spitfire down at Enstone

[barry lloyd]

https://forums.flyer.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=124200

[David Thompson]

RIP ;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-66586313 .

[SATCOS WHIPPING BOY]

Picked up via social media that a light aircraft has crashed today near Enstone, Oxfordshire. Early reports suggested it was a "spitfire" style aircraft. Perhaps a replica.

Thoughts are with family and friends.

Apologies Barry, I did search before posting but did not see your thread

[DaveReidUK]

Picked up via social media that a light aircraft has crashed today near Enstone, Oxfordshire. Early reports suggested it was a "spitfire" style aircraft. Perhaps a replica.

Yes, SAC Spitfire lookalike. There are a couple based at Enstone.

[treadigraph]

Yep, looks like one of the local replicas. With a fatal PA-28 crash (i think) in Essex the day before and two fatal glider accidents last week, sadly British light aviation is going through a bad patch.

[Mike Flynn]

Detailed info here. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12438527/Retired-banker-68-dies-horror-crash-flying-beloved-replica-Spitfire-Oxfordshire.html

[vanHorck]

I am a retired PPL/MEP. It must have been him doing aerobatics above our village of Swalcliffe and Sibford, north of Enstone. I heard a plane doing aerobatics and went outside to watch. I saw him do a loop and on exit some rolls, after which time he flew out of sight in a south easterly direction. IT clearly had the shape of a Spitfire but not a Merlin sound. I can only assume it was him. RIP. When I was still flying, some years ago I went to Enstone to look at the replica's and I was very impressed. I wonder what makes these replica's hard to fly?> Is it a lack of warning prior to the stall? The pictures seem to show he crashed in a reasonably level attitude, does anyone know if he was on finals to land?

EDIT: I must have mistaken the date. My sighting was on the 21st.

[DaveReidUK]

The SASP appear to have been G-CLHJ, built by Paul Fowler and operated by the Molly Rose Group, painted as Spitfire I "R6800/LZ-N".

[FullOppositeRudder]

A few years back, one of these spun in during a turn onto finals after a display at an airshow not far from where I live. I wasn't there fortunately, but it shook me since I had a very pleasant conversation with the pilot when he paid us a visit in the aircraft only a few months earlier.

[treadigraph]

The pictures seem to show he crashed in a reasonably level attitude, does anyone know if he was on finals to land?.

I think the accident was just outside Neat Enstone village which is about a mile south of the 08 end of the runway.

[EXDAC]

Detailed info here. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12438527/Retired-banker-68-dies-horror-crash-flying-beloved-replica-Spitfire-Oxfordshire.html

I don't see a right wing. Left wing and tail are there. Anyone else think the right wing is missing?

[PoacherNowGamekeeper]

I don't see a right wing. Left wing and tail are there. Anyone else think the right wing is missing?
Maybe it detached in flight and landed elsewhere.

[treadigraph]

I don't see a right wing. Left wing and tail are there. Anyone else think the right wing is missing?
It's there folded back and up towards the fuselage - you can see it's obscuring the lower part of the roundel.

[EXDAC]

It's there folded back and up towards the fuselage - you can see it's obscuring the lower part of the roundel.

I see it now, thanks.

[Mach Jump]

Judging purely by the damage to the aircraft, and the witness marks on the ground, it looks like it was spinning to the left on impact.