The strangest mid-air collision ever.
The two Avro Ansons crashed and got entangled together.
The aviation mishap that put Brocklesby permanently on the map occurred on 29 September 1940.
Back then, the Royal Australian Air Force operated a Flying Training School at Forest Hill near Wagga Wagga.
To this day, the BCATP remains one of the single largest aviation training programs in history.
The pilot of tail number L9162, Jack Inglis Hewson, was younger still at 19.
His navigator was Hugh Gavin Fraser.
An Avro Anson in flight during the Classic Fighters Airshow in 2015.
Moments later, the two Ansons smashed together.
Both Ansons thus became interlocked, one on top of the other.
The crew couldnt bail out just yet because that would crash the airplanes over Brocklesby.
Somehow they would have to fly this freak combination out into the fields and away from the houses.
Realizing he had a chance, Fuller ordered the others to jump.
After flying for some 8 km, Fuller ran the planes aground on a large empty field.
The locked aircrafts slid 180 meters across the grass before coming to rest.
According to Fuller, it was the best landing he ever made.
The extraordinary feat made headlines across the world, and cast a spotlight on the small town of Brocklesby.
Both Ansons were repaired and returned to flight service.
Fuller earned a promotion.
Unfortunately, he talked too much to the newspapers without permission.
Fuller saw active service first in the Middle East, and then in Europe.
He earned the Distinguished Flying Medal for sinking enemy shipping in Palermo Harbour.
1 Operational Training Unit in Sale, Victoria.
The memorial at Brocklesby commemorating the successful crash landing in 1940 after the mid-air collision.
Photo:Peter F Williams/Twitter
The Avro Anson propeller at Brocklesby.
