THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE - Reims Cessna Crash

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — these Findon Chronicles were created by Valerie Martin and contain scenes from her home village of Findon,
West Sussex, U.K. Everyday stories about real people.

During the Second World War two enemy aircraft crashed on the downland above Findon at High Salvington. A Heinkel and also a Messerschmitt were brought down in 1940 but these were not the last to meet their fate on this stretch of meadow and rough pasture.

One gloomy rainy Sunday evening a year after I moved to Findon, I heard the drone of a light aircraft flying overhead at a very low altitude heading west. The time was 16.15 hours precisely and the date 20th November 1994.

I stood looking out of my patio windows expecting to see just the darkened hillside across the valley. An aircraft with the red light flashing on its wingtip showed up as it passed over the shadowy High Salvington escarpment seeming to almost touch the topmost trees. Silence followed. Minutes passed. I left the window but something drew me back. In the impending blackness I witnessed an unusual moving glow ..... this lit up the skyline where all should have been black. The time was now 16.25. The "thing" appeared to be similar to the headlights of a vehicle...... and then another appeared. I had not witnessed cars among the trees on the High Salvington escarpment in daylight — let alone after nightfall.

The thwop-thwop of a helicopter sounded in the distance and was instantly recognisable. Surely it was not trying to find a landing site in this inclement weather? Had there been an accident?

I invite you to re-live that night and join me on the last mission of the Reims Cessna F182Q Skylane, Registration G-LIGG belonging to Hi-Travel. How did this story start? Here are the facts behind that High Salvington crash.

The date was Thursday 17th November 1994 when the little aircraft flew from its base at High Wycombe to nearby Shoreham with the 54-year-old pilot (who had a private pilot's licence and counted 426 hours of flying experience to his credit) and one male passenger. At Shoreham the craft was refuelled and a female passenger joined the aircraft for the onward flight to Drachten in the Netherlands. It remained in Drachten until the fateful Sunday when the Cessna was flown to Leystad and landed at 11.27 hours in readiness for the return flight to Shoreham (with the same three passengers). The pilot was sitting in the front left seat and he filed the flight plan to Shoreham via Koksy, Dover and Lydd. When the aircraft departed at 13.11 hours, the male passenger was in the front right seat and the female sat at the rear right. The weather report for their journey read —

At 16.04 the pilot made his first call to Shoreham. At 16.08 hours he apprised the Gatwick Director of the bad visibility and cloudbase at Shoreham, this time saying...

But he did not. That was the last ominous message anyone was to receive from the light aircraft. At 16.13 hours the Cessna was so close to its destination that it passed a couple of north of Shoreham Airport but decided not to attempt coming in. It headed westwards. Flying over the Findon area it barely skimmed the High Salvington ridge. Here it finally collided with the trees in Clapham Wood and ploughed to rest through foliage to the crest of a low spur on the southern edge of the Downs. The time was precisely 16.16 hours.

The force of the impact was overwhelming and the ugly carnage can only be imagined in the pitch dark. After colliding with the undergrowth the Cessna's wings were broken off but the fuselage careered on through the trees for another 230 ft leaving devastation in its wake. Rather surprisingly there was no fire. The Cessna's cabin (engine still partially intact) came to a shuddering rest on its side against dense brush with the rear fuselage folded back over on top. Obviously it goes without saying that the little Cessna was a complete write-off and damaged beyond repair after its encounter with the hillside.

The moving lights I had witnessed from my window were the emergency vehicles going to the disaster scene. The thwop-thwop of the heliocopter I had heard was, in fact, a Search and Rescue S61N helicopter scrambled from Lee-on Solent. It made four gallant but abortive attempts to approach the downed aircraft but was prevented from landing by the low cloud and heavy rain that night.

The pilot and the female passenger died from injuries upon impact. The third occupant survived the accident. Nevertheless, he suffered serious injuries to the head and body but was discharged from hospital 17 days later. Due to the severe injuries and traumatic experience on that terrible night on the hillside, his recall of the accident was extremely minimal.

That is the end of the tragic story of the Cessna and there is only one thing I am missing..... a photograph of the wreckage. I am wondering if anyone took a photograph of the crashed Cessna in 1994?