The Elvetham air crash occurred on 5 October 1945 when a Consolidated Liberator GR.VI aircraft, serial number KG867, of 311 Squadron Royal Air Force crashed at Elvetham, east of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, following a fire in one of its engines and fuel starvation to another.

The crash was the largest single loss of life in an accident involving Free Czechoslovaks serving in the RAF Volunteer Reserve.

Aircraft were needed to deliver supplies and equipment, and to repatriate nationals of formerly-occupied countries who had served in Allied forces.

The colours of the aircraft remained as they had been under Coastal Command: white on the sides and underneath, with camouflage only on the upper surfaces.

In August 1945, 311 Squadron was transferred from RAF Manston in Kent, England to Ruzyně Airport, Prague, Czechoslovakia to continue transport operations.

[1] Kudláček had married a British woman, their first son had been born in October 1941 and the family was looking forward to the boy's fourth birthday.

Kudláček had just returned from the Royal Hospital, Wolverhampton, where Mrs Kudláčková had given birth to their second son[1] about 10 days previously.

[6] KG867 was scheduled to make a 665-mile (1,070 km) flight from Blackbushe to Ruzyně on Thursday 4 October to repatriate Czechoslovak service personnel and their families to their homeland.

But another account, by Warrant Officer Pavel Svoboda of 311 Squadron, said "We spent a very unpleasant night, due to a lack of accommodation, especially the women with children.

[1] At the Liberator's cruising speed of 215 mph (346 km/h) the flight could be expected to take more than three hours, so KG867 was carrying a substantial amount of fuel.

One girl, who was 12 at the time, recalled seeing KG867 fly over with its port wing down and both starboard engines "running very fast" before passing out of sight and crashing.

The control tower recalled it and instructed the aircraft to wait but later it was cleared to take off; its crew were not told of the crash until after they had landed in Prague.

[1] The 17 official passengers included nine women, one of whom was Marína Paulínyová, aged 46, who was Vice-Chairman of the Czechoslovak Red Cross in London.

[3][7] But LACW Sedláková, the wife of Flt Sgt Sedlák, the flight engineer, had been reported missing after KG867 took off[3] and she failed to return home to her flat in London.

[6] Sedláková had been born Edita Hermannová, a Czechoslovak Jew who reached the UK as one of Nicholas Winton's Kindertransport refugees in 1939.

Her father had already died at that time and her brother Kurt had entered UK independently as a refugee a few months earlier in 1939.

Sue Albery (née Hrabáková) responded that her parents, Doris and Eddy Hrabák, had given up their seats on the flight to enable Edita and Zdenĕk to fly together.

[1] Access to the control panel was poor, as it was partly obstructed by an emergency pump for the aircraft's hydraulic equipment.

The fire extinguisher control panel included selector switches for the co-pilot to select which of the four engines to douse with CO2.

[1] On 6 October 1945 the Czechoslovak Government announced it had terminated the repatriation of its nationals from the UK by air transport.

[1] 13 of the passengers share a common grave in part of the civilian cemetery in Long Avenue called the Old Roman Catholic Ground.

A separate, smaller plaque commemorating Sedláková's RAF service was added in front of the monument in November 2015.