A Mid-20thC Taxidermy of a Fox Cub; "I Could Have Been Killed"

Origin: English
Period: Mid / Late Twentieth Century
Provenance: Unknown
Date: c.1960
Height: 27.5 inches (whole)
Width: 9 inches (base)
Depth: 14 inches (base)

A devastating scene at Prickwillow airport: wreckage strewn everywhere, a plane lying in pieces. Rescue workers pull bodies out of the charred remains of the Foxbus A350 which had slammed and burned into the ground.

But from this hellish scene, one was saved – a young cub who miraculously survived the terrible plane crash. A total of 108 mammals were on board the Animal Airways flight when it came down in Walton-on-The-Naze on landing.

The four-year-old fox cub believed to be called Colin from Wiggen Hall St Mary Magdalen, was treated in the hospital for his injuries including two broken hind legs, a fractured wrist and gash to the forehead.

A hedgehog worker said later that the youngster recovered from a stable condition in hospital having suffered the broken bones and bruising. Colin does not yet know that his family, who had been on board the plane with him; have sadly perished. According to the Warren Gazette newspaper he had been on the flight with his parents and 11-year-old brother Ken. First reports suggested that 61 of the passengers on the A350 came from Norwich suburbs, with 13 from Pudding Norton and others from Swaffham Bullbeck and Little Plumbstead.

Colin, whose body was somehow able to survive the brute force of a plane crash, is a miracle amidst the tragedy. It is unknown at the moment how he managed to avoid death; but his story gives hope that tragic accidents can be survived. We’ve tried asking him about the final moments of the crash but he only mutters repeatedly; “What the lion cannot manage to do the fox can.”