East London - East London

On February 1, 1942 at 12:00 AM, East London - East London experienced a crash involving Avro 652 Anson, operated by South African Air Force, with the event recorded near East London Eastern Cape.

The flight was categorized as aerial photography and the reported phase was flight at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

5 people were known to be on board, 5 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 5, crew fatalities: 5, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The crew left East London-Collondale AFB in the day on an aerial photography mission in formation with a second SAAF Anson registered 3164. En route, in unknown circumstances, both aircraft collided. While the pilot of the 3164 was able to make an emergency landing at Collondale, the Anson registered 1212 dove into the ground and crashed in flames in a field located 1,5 mile southwest of the airfield. All five crew members were killed. Crew (41st Squadron): P/O D. I. Fraser, pilot, 2nd Lt C. P. Davis, copilot, LAC E. Portnell, observer, LAC T. E. D. Tighe, observer, LAC J. D. Schenfield, observer.

Aircraft reference details include registration 1212.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately -33.0292°, 27.8862°.