Memorial enquiry
 

Good morning all,

I wondered if anyone could help me with a query? Near my home is a small memorial to a Captain Donald Roberts who was killed when his A-10 from RAF Bentwaters crashed on 17 April 1989.

The memorial receives flowers on occasion and also a wreath of poppies. I would very much like to find out more about the incident and, if possible, the pilot as my intention is to also lay flowers on the anniversary of his death so any help would be appreciated.

The usual avenues (Google etc...) have failed me so I thought of Pprune.

Thank you in advance.

This one mile south of Benwick, Cambs?

I have linked to your post on the military aviation section of the U.S. based message board, FlightInfo.com.

Perhaps someone there will have some information. I will pass along whatever responses are received.

Thank you very much for keeping Capt Roberts in your thoughts.

Little bit of info here i dug up doing some research on jag crashes a few months ago from the Commons debates public records:

Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if he will make a statement about the crash of a United States Air Force A-10 Tankbuster jet from RAF Bentwaters at Bank farm, Benwick near Chatteris, Cambridgeshire ;

(2) if he will make a statement about each crash in the United Kingdom or its territorial waters of United States Air Force jets in the last year ; what risk to life was involved ; and what armaments they were carrying.

Mr. Neubert : During the last year, three United States Air Force aircraft have been lost in accidents in the United Kingdom, as follows :

i. 22 December 1988 : and A-10 aircraft crashed near St. Ives, Cambridgeshire, during a routine training flight. The pilot successfully ejected.

ii. 4 April 1989 : an A-10 aircraft crashed on landing at RAF Alconbury. The pilot was uninjured.

iii. 17 April 1989 : and A-10 aircraft crashed during a routine training flight on open farmland one mile south of Benwick, Cambridgeshire. The pilot was killed.


In each case the aircraft was equipped with GAU7 anti-tank guns and practice ammunition. No civilians were injured as a result of any of these accidents.

I've emailed a friend who was flying Hogs from Bentwaters at around the same time as the mishap mentioned. I'll let you know if he responds.

Here is one link provided by someone on the other web board:

510th Fighter Squadron

redtwotter,

Check your PM\'s.

Gents,

Thank you very much for your replies. Yes, the memorial is the one close to Benwick.

I stopped there yesterday on my way home and it consists of a cross and close by a raised plate with a small tree planted in his memory. The plate and tree are from the March Squadron of the Air Training Corps so I am going to see about contacting them as well.

Once again, thank you for your help & KC10 Driver, I've pm'd you.

From a Google search, March Sqn ATC are 1220 Sqn and their email address is [email protected] . Another search gives further contact details.

HTH

EDIT: The link I posted works fine when pasted into an IE address bar, but doesn't seem to work through the PPRuNe link posting system - it may work if your paste this into the address bar:
http://www.isadirectory.org.uk/infor...ng+Corps+1220+(March)+Squadron

This may be a problem with our company firewall.