Needles Mosquito crash - August 1946

While on exercise with an aircraft carrier, a Royal Naval Mosquito aircraft crashed into the cliff at the Needles killing both on board.

On 23 August 1946 a Royal Naval Mosquito aircraft, with a crew of two, took off from the Royal Naval Air Station at Ford, Sussex to take part in exercises with aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious off of the Island. Just after 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the aircraft was heard by servicemen at the Needles Battery flying low in thick fog. They then heard a crash and explosion as the aircraft crashed into the cliff killing both the pilot and observer. The pilot was Temp. Sub.-Lieut. (A) Charles Horace Buxton, RNVR aged 21 from Rushington, Sussex; the observer Temp. Sub.-Lieut. (A) Kenneth Strickland, RNVR, aged 20 from York.