Date:	Saturday 3 July 1948
Time:	15:20 LT
Type:	Supermarine Spitfire FR Mk XIV
Owner/operator:	611 (West Lancashire) Sqn RAF
Registration:	NM814
MSN:	ALD.
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Coldbergh Edge, Nine Standards Rigg, Keld, 6 miles SE of Kirby Stephen -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Woodvale, Lancashire
Destination airport:	Morpeth, Northumberland

Narrative:
NM814: Spitfire FR. XIV, built by Vickers-Armstrongs (Supermarine) at Aldermaston. Delivered to the RAF 29 MU RAF High Ercoll, Shropshire 31-3-45. Issued to 611 (West Lancashire) Squadron RAF Woodvale, Lancashire 20-6-47. Written off (destroyed) when abandoned in cloud on a cross country NAVEX (Navigation Exercise) at Coldbergh Edge, Nine Standards Rigg, Keld, 6 miles South East of Kirby Stephen, on the Westmorland/North Yorkshire border on 3-7-48

On 3-7-48 three aircraft took off from Woodvale at around 14:45 hours for a cross country training flight to Morpeth in Northumberland. Prior to taking off the Met report was checked and the flight was given the go ahead. Thirty-five minutes into the flight and while flying at 6,000 feet this aircraft flew into cumulous-nimbus clouds. The other two aircraft had by now already turned back, this aircraft suffered severe turbulence, the lost height to about 3,000 feet.

Whilst flying on instruments the pilot then lost control and probably aware he was over high ground he bailed out leaving the aircraft to crash at the head of Swaledale. The aircraft crashed at Coldbergh Edge at a steep angle and bury much of itself into the ground. The parachute ripped on the pilot's exit of the aircraft but he landed reasonably well and only sprained an ankle on landing above Kirkby Stephen. He began to follow a river downstream but was met by two farmers who had seen the crash and were making their way up towards the site and was later taken to hospital.

Pilot - Flying Officer (128070) Peter Geldart RAF VR - Slightly injured (sprained ankle)

Due to a breakdown in communications in the fact that Flying Officer Geldart had been found had not been passed on, therefore a search of the aircraft’s route was carried out in foul weather by a Lancaster and Spitfires from Woodvale, there was even a radio broadcast just before the 21:00 hour news on the BBC Home Service asking for information on a missing pilot and aircraft. Just before this broadcast Flying Officer Geldart managed to contact Woodvale and report to his unit, he was safe, although slightly injured (sprained ankle); he was then taken to the station sick quarters at RAF Catterick to have his injured ankle treated

The wreckage was rediscovered in August 1976, and the crash site was extensively recovered in 1988 which saw the recovery of over 2 tons of wreckage, complete with the aircraft’s engine. Though this would not have been complete judging by the number of small fragments of engine casing still found at the site.

Nine Standards Rigg is the summit of Hartley Fell in the Pennine Hills of England. It lies near the boundary between Cumbria and North Yorkshire, a few miles south-east of Kirkby Stephen and approximately 770 yards (700 m) outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Nine Standards Rigg lies within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The name is derived from a group of cairns, the Nine Standards, located near the summit.

1. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.7. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Aircraft Wrecks: The Walker's Guide: Historic Crash Sites on the Moors and Mountains of the British Isles (page 170) By Nick Wotherspoon, Alan Clark & Mark Sheldon
3. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.407
4. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/p081.html
5. 611 Sqn RAF ORB for the period 1-6-1946 to 31-3-1957: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR27/2517: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2505155
6. https://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/crash_sites/pennines/supermarine-spitfire-nm814-coldbergh-edge/
7. http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/planes/dales/nm814.html
8. http://www.south-lancs-aviation.bravepages.com/nm814.htm
9. http://www.611squadronrauxaf.co.uk/news/050502bulletin/050502bulletin.htm
10. "RAF Write offs 1948": Air Britain Aeromilitaria No.1 1979: https://air-britain.com/pdfs/aeromilitaria/Aeromilitaria_1979.pdf
11. https://www.avialogs.com/spitfire-and-seafire-registry/item/80095-nm814
12. https://allspitfirepilots.org/aircraft/NM814
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Standards_Rigg

Nine Standards Rigg, Keld, 6 miles SE of Kirby Stephen in 1996:

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
13-Nov-2019 22:06	Dr. John Smith	Added
17-Nov-2019 17:13	Anon.	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Operator]
22-Aug-2023 20:08	Dr. John Smith	Updated [[Aircraft type, Operator, Operator]]