Date:	Thursday 16 February 1967
Time:	day
Type:	Taylorcraft Auster AOP Mk V
Owner/operator:	Thanet Flying Club Ltd
Registration:	G-AJAK
MSN:	1021
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Ramsgate Airport, Ramsgate, Kent -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Ramsgate, Kent (X2RT)
Destination airport:	Ramsgate, Kent (X2RT)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Ex-RAF Auster AOP.V NJ625: RAF service with 83 Group Comms Sqn, 84 Group Comms Sqn, 657 Sqn and 662 Sqn. Struck Off Charge 11.7.1946 and sold. First civilian registered as G-AJAK 13.2.1947. Sold in France as F-BIAU 21.2.1957. Sold in Ireland as EI-AKN 22.12.1958; Reverted to G-AJAK 25.4.1961. Final owners were the Thanet Flying Club from 30.11.1965 (they were the 11th owners from new, not including military use...)

Written off (damaged beyond repair) when crashed at Ramsgate, Kent 16.2.1967. According to a contemporary newspaper report ("Thanet Times" - Tuesday 21 February 1967)

"AUSTER HIT TREE, LANDED ON BACK
Two escape plane crash at airfield

TWO local men were counting their cuts and bruises - and their lucky stars at being alive - this week, after their light aircraft hit some trees and crashed upside down in a field on the boundary of Ramsgate Airport.

They were the pilot, Mr. David Mackie (40), of Epple Bay Avenue, Birchington, and 22-year-old Mr. John Chisman, of St. Luke's Avenue, Ramsgate.

Mr. Mackie was instructing Mr. Chisman in the technique of landing the twin-seat Auster on Thursday when the controls jammed. He took over the controls himself, circled round to land a second time, then saw a man with a dog on the runway. He managed to lift the plane over the boundary fence at one end of the grass airfield, but the wing-tip hit some poplar trees and the plane was flipped on to its back into the field.

The red-and-white aircraft - belonging to Thanet Flying Club - was completely wrecked. Mr. Mackie had nine stitches inserted in a cut lip. Mr. Chisman was treated for shock.

Eye-witness Mrs. J. Goldenzinowskis said: "I was cycling along Pyson's Road and saw the plane going round. It seemed to overshoot and then hit a tree and crash. One of them got out. He was bleeding, but he seemed all right."

Schoolgirls Sylvia Rose and Joy Fawcett, both playing hockey on Dane Court Girls' School playing fields, said they saw the plane spin round twice before falling.

A South-Eastern Gas Board workman in Bromstone Road said the wing of the plane tipped the fence before "ploughing into the trees."

But the alarm was given by Mr. Roger Court, who was working in a nearby field of roses. He saw the crash, feared the worst and put through a 999 call.

Mr. Mackie is a pilot with Air Ferry at Manston".

Registration G-AJAK cancelled by the CAA as P.W.F.U. ("Permanently Withdrawn From Use") 8.8.1967

1. Birmingham Daily Post - Friday 17 February 1967
2. Thanet Times - Tuesday 21 February 1967
3. Moor, Anthony John (2019). Ramsgate Airport a pictorial history. UK: Fonthill Media. pp. 118, 119. ISBN 978-1-78155-694-8.
4. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AJAK-4.pdf
5. Yorkshire Air News February 1967: http://www.yorkshireairnews.co.uk/
6. http://austerhg.org/prod_list/pages.php?page=920
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsgate_Airport#Accidents_and_incidents
8. http://www.ukserials.com/losses_civil.htm

Auster G-AJAK at Ramsgate Airport in Summer 1966:

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
05-Aug-2015 20:10	Dr. John Smith	Added
05-Aug-2015 20:19	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Date, Aircraft type, Embed code, Narrative]
05-Aug-2015 21:17	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type, Narrative]
28-Feb-2020 20:51	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
28-Feb-2020 21:00	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Total occupants, Source, Embed code, Narrative]