This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information.
If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can
submit corrected information.
Date: | Sunday 27 February 1916 |
Time: | day |
Type: | Bristol Scout Type C |
Owner/operator: | 5 Wg RFC |
Registration: | 1258 |
MSN: | |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | One mile from RFC Dover, Swingate Down, Dover, Kent -
United Kingdom
|
Phase: | Approach |
Nature: | Military |
Departure airport: | RFC Dover, Swingate Down, Dover, Kent |
Destination airport: | RFC Dover, Swingate Down, Dover, Kent |
Confidence Rating: | Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Narrative:27.2.16: Bristol Scout Type C 1258, 5 Wing, RFC Dover. Written off (destroyed) when nose-dived into ground from about 250 feet, RFC Dover, Swingate Down, Dover, Kent. Pilot - Flt Lt Harold Rosher (aged 21) - was killed. According to the preface to a collection of Harold Rosher's letters home to his parents between 11 August 1914 and 24 February 1916 (in a sense, his autobiography) (see link #6):
"Three days after the date of the last letter Harold was killed. On 27th February, Major Risk, the C.O. of the Dover Aeroplane Station being away on duty, Harold, as second in command, was in charge. Among other duties he had to train new pilots on fast machines, and he would always personally test a new machine or a newly-repaired machine before allowing anybody else to try it.
On that Sunday morning he ordered a number of machines to be brought out of the sheds for practice flights. Among them was one which had just been repaired after a mishap three weeks earlier. The pilot had already got into his machine. Harold told him to get out as the machine was untested, and himself took it up for a trial flight of eight or ten minutes.
Everything seemed to go right until Harold began the descent about a mile away from the Aerodrome. Then, at a height of 300 feet or less, the machine suddenly made a nose-dive and crashed to the ground. Harold was killed instantly. The disaster occupied seven seconds. At the inquest nothing was ascertained as to the cause of the accident.
One theory is that the controls jammed. Harold was buried on the 2nd March at Charlton Cemetery, with full naval honours. The cemetery is on the cliffs within sight of the Aerodrome, and while his body was being lowered into the grave aeroplanes were flying overhead."
Sources:
1.
http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1916.htm 2.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/365403/rosher,-harold/ 3.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Scout#Variants 4.
https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/55262-book-in-the-rnas/ 5.
http://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1916-02Feb.htm 6. Harold Rosher's letters home to his parents 11 August 1914 to 24 February 1916:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/53168/53168-h/53168-h.htm#Page_133 7.
https://cis.photoarchive.merton.gov.uk/entity/186883-flight-lieutenant-harold-rosher 8.
http://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1916-02Feb.htm 9. Flight magazine (March 2 1916 page 173):
https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1916/1916%20-%200173.PDF Media:
No picture has been found for Bristol Scout Type C 1258: the above picture is of Scout 1255 from the same production batch
Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
30-Nov-2018 21:32 |
Dr.John Smith |
Added |
24-Jan-2019 08:40 |
Nepa |
Updated [Operator, Operator] |