ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 159924
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| Date: | Sunday 7 January 1945 |
| Time: | 13:27 approx |
| Type: | Airspeed Oxford Mk I |
| Owner/operator: | 1546 BAT Flt RAF |
| Registration: | LW903 |
| MSN: | PAC/1666 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Round Hill, Urra Moor, 3 miles NE of Chop Gate, North Yorkshire -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RNAS Crail (HMS Jackdaw), Anstruther, Fife, Scotland |
| RAF Faldingworth. Lincolnshire |
On 7th January 1945 Flying Officer Norman Riley was tasked to ferry an Oxford aircraft from Faldingworth airfield to Montrose airfield where it was to be used by a flying unit there. Both Oxfords had been in the care of No.1546 Beam Approach Training Flight (B.A.T.Flight) but this unit had run its final course in the weeks prior to this date and their aircraft were being allotted to different units. Flying Officer Owen Clarson and Flying Officer John Barkell followed the other Oxford in Oxford LW903, to allow Flying Officer Riley to be returned to Faldingworth when the other Oxford was delivered, on paper it also acted as a navigation exercise for the pilots.
After this flight all three men were to be allowed on leave. The flight north also allowed a passenger in Flying Officer Riley's aircraft, L/AC Gregory, to be dropped off at Middleton St.George airfield and both Oxfords landed there, probably also being re-fuelled for the rest of the flight north. Having dropped off the passenger they continued the flight.
As they flew further north the weather became poor and because of the flying conditions both Oxfords landed at Kinnell airfield. At that time Kinnell was being used as a satellite airfield for the units using Montrose airfield so the unit there accepted the delivery of the Oxford.
Flying Officer Riley left RAF Kinnell as a passenger in Oxford LW903 to return south. Oxford LW903 than landed at RNAS Crail at 17:30 hours where the three airmen would stay the night and intend to complete the flight to Faldingworth the following day.
The weather forecast the following day was poor, heavy snow showers and cloud would have made the flight difficult. This would have also left a high probability of the aircraft being effected by icing conditions on the flying surfaces. The poor forecast probably resulted in the aircraft not leaving RNAS Crail until 12.35 hours that day. As captain of the aircraft, Flying Officer Clarson was initially refused permission to take off because of the poor conditions but eventually the Commanding Officer at Crail, Commander Mervyn Johnstone DSC, allowed the Oxford to take off.
Flying Officer Clarson had put forward his experience of beam approach and instrument flying as reasons why the flight should be allowed. The route advised was to have been to fly south via Dunbar, then towards Newcastle, Darlington, then down the Vale of York, across to Doncaster and then to base of Faldingworth in Lincolnshire. This route would have kept the aircraft well clear of much of the high ground in Northern England which, given the time of year and the forecast, would have probably seen the worst of the weather.
After setting out from RNAS Crail not much is known. The weather must certainly have become bad and the crew must have found themselves flying through snow or snow clouds. Looking at the plot of the route the crew were advised to fly and where the aircraft subsequently crashed the crash site falls pretty much on a direct line between Crail/Dunbar and Faldingworth. I offer the suggestion that the crew had realised the weather was poorer than then anticipated. Instead of navigating the route on the ground they calculated a compass baring to follow and flying using instruments they stuck to that heading for much of the flight south. When the aircraft failed to arrive at Faldingworth it was reported as overdue and eventually as missing. Royal Observer Corp posts had tracked the aircraft south until loosing sight of it over the North York Moors at around 13.27 hours.
I assume that because the R.O.C. had tracked the aircraft over the Moors the site was searched for in the time after the crash until it was found. Because of the poor weather the crash site was not found until 14th January 1945; six days after it was reported as missing. The aircraft had flown into the ground and broken up with all on board being killed.
It was thought that the aircraft had iced up or the engines were failing because of carburetor icing and it had then lost height or the pilot had tried to descend out of these conditions and it crashed while descending. Having located the crash site I had initially believed the aircraft to have flown in from the south and struck high ground, it transpires that this was not, in fact, what happened. The aircraft had flown in from the north and descended onto the downward facing slope having just cleared the top of Urra Moor which is also the highest top of the Moors.
At some point after the crash much of the aircraft was either recovered or burnt on site and in the years after the crash the larger metal sections were collected together to tidy the area.
Oxford LW903 was built to contract ACFT/2144 by Percival Aircraft Ltd at Luton and was delivered into RAF MU storage in August 1943. After a period in storage it was issued to 18 (P)AFU based at Church Lawford on 1st July 1944 must must have been loaned to No.1546 B.A.T.Flight well before the accident on Urra Moor
Crew of Oxford LW903:
Pilot/Instructor - Flying Officer Owen Munro Wovenden Clarson RCAF (J/25795), aged 22, of St Anne de Bellavue, Quebec, Canada.
Second Pilot/Instructor) - Flying Officer John Donald Stewart Barkell RAF (150443), aged 21, wife of Daventry, Northamptonshire.
Passenger/Pilot - Flying Officer Norman Geoffrey Riley RCAF (J/26110), aged 24, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Both of the Canadian crew were buried at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire. John Barkell was buried at Botley Cemetery in Oxford. Wreckage of Oxford LW903 was still to be found at the crash site - at approximate co ordinates - 54:24.0585 N, 1:4.9140 W - on 26 October 2016
Sources:
1. http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/planes/45/lw903.html
2. http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5171471
3. http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=1871
4. http://peakwreckhunters.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/airspeed-oxford-mk-i-lw903.html
5. http://www.dtvmovements.co.uk/Archivesmonths/1983/1983%20-%20Jan.pdf
6. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?16277-F-O-Owen-Clarson-RCAF
7. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46552299
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 02-Sep-2013 08:01 | JINX | Added |
| 19-Jan-2016 20:24 | JIXN | Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Source] |
| 02-Aug-2017 19:47 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Date, Time, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 03-Aug-2017 19:57 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Registration] |
| 25-Nov-2018 17:04 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Operator] |
| 03-Jan-2020 12:43 | TigerTimon | Updated [Time] |
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