Magister N3859 at Leconfield airfield.

At 14.15hrs on 21st February 1940 this 234 Squadron Magister was being taxied towards a hanger at Leconfield airfield when it was struck by Spitfire K9988 of 616 Squadron that was in the process of taking off. The general state of the whole airfield flying area was very wet and waterlogged with pools of standing water across the area. The Spitfire was one of three that had been scrambled for an operational interception and while Number Two in the take off order a problem with the lead aircraft resulted in this Spitfire being cleared to take off first. Due to the wet ground the pilot was taking off with the tail wheel on the ground. As it picked up speed the pilot of which had noticed a 245 Squadron Battle that was also taking off at the same time, realising that their courses were converging he slowed and changed course briefly to let the Battle get airborne before applying power to take off himself. With tail wheel on the ground the nose of the Spitfire restricts forward visibility, at around the moment the Spitfire left the ground it collided with the Magister. It was stated likely that neither pilots had seen the other other aircraft at all, the nose of the Spitfire would have masked it's pilot's vision of where the Magister was and the Magister pilot would not have been expected that an aircraft would have taken off on the course it did. Sadly the Magister pilot was killed instantly as a result of the collision while the Spitfire only appears to have sustained minor damage and came to rest with the propeller in the ground.

The accident attracted a long and length investigation with various critisms and recommendations being made. It's worthy of stating here that the Magister pilot was cleared of all blame. The general wet state of the flying area of the airfield was mentioned but was not deemed worthy of effecting the crash which I find hard to believe. The airfield concrete was not laid by this date so the airfield was basically a grass field with patches of mud, standing water and general waterlogged grass. Witnesses stated that as the Spitfire made it's take off run a mass of water, mud and spray were sent into the air but this seems to have had little baring on the investigation's conclusions. collision and the Spitfire pilot was trying to avoid hitting a Battle aircraft which was also in the way. The pilot of Magister N3859 was killed.

Pilot - P/O David Whittier Coysh RAF (41671), aged 22, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Buried Torquay Cemetery, Devon.