Dover, Kent. At 10.55 on the morning of the 27th May, 1961, the coastguard informed the honorary secretary that an aircraft had crashed into the sea near the Varne lightvessel and that the pilot had been picked up by the lightvessel's crew. At 11.10, when the life-boat Southern Africa put out, there was a moderate northerly wind with a slight sea and it was one hour after high water.

The life-boat reached the lightvessel at 12.47, took the pilot on board and landed him at Dover at 2.30 that after- noon..