Date:	Thursday 18 August 1949
Time:	day
Type:	Supermarine Spitfire LF Mk XVI
Owner/operator:	203 AFS RAF
Registration:	TE340
MSN:	CBAF IX.4514
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Pristow Green, 3 miles west of RAF Tibenham, Norfolk, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Stradishall, near Haverhill, Suffolk
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Spitfire TE340: Built at CBAF (Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factor) with Merlin M266 engine. Delivered to the RAF at 6 MU RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire 8-6-45. Issued to 203 AFS (Advanced Flying School), RAF Stradishall, Haverhill, Suffolk 3-3-46

Written off (destroyed) when hit trees pulling out of dive at near Pristow Green, 3 miles West of RAF Tibenham, near Diss, Norfolk 18-8-49. The pilot was engaged on an Army Co-operation Support exercise, and had completed the assigned mission. However, the pilot then flew the aircraft below the assigned recovery altitude, The Spitfire skimmed the tops of some trees, and crashed into a field before breaking apart on impact. The pilot was killed.

Crew:
P/O (3003383) Andrew James Lawrence McFARLANE (pilot) RAF: killed on active service 18-8-49

Aircraft not repaired; re-cat E scrap 9-9-49 and struck off charge. The pilot had only very recently been promoted to the rank of pilot officer (on 8-4-49, four months earlier - see link #8)

203 AFS was formed at RAF Keevil on 1 July 1947 by redesignating No. 61 OTU. On 31-8-49 226 OCU moved to RAF Driffield in Yorkshire where it disbanded for the first time by being redesignated as No. 203 Advanced Flying School.

The following month, on 1-9-49, 203 AFS was resurrected at RAF Stradishall and the unit began a new chapter. It was disbanded to become No. 226 Operational Conversion Unit RAF at RAF Stradishall but reformed at RAF Driffield one day later. It was finally disbanded on 1 June 1954 still at Driffield.

RAF Tibenham is a former Royal Air Force station located 13.5 miles (21.7 km) southwest of Norwich and 5.8 miles (9.3 km) north of Diss, Norfolk, England. The USAAF left in late May 1945 and on 15-7-45 the airfield reverted to the Air Ministry becoming a Maintenance Unit satellite. No. 4247 Anti-Aircraft Flight RAF Regiment was posted here at some point.

Although part of the airfield was sold off in 1952, the main runway was lengthened in 1955 for possible use by jet aircraft. However, it was never utilized and Tibenham was closed in 1959, being sold off during 1964/65.

1. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.522
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
4. 203 AFS RAF ORB for the period 1-6-1947 to 31-12-1950: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR29/1771: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4101481
5. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/p112.html
6. https://www.avialogs.com/spitfire-and-seafire-registry/item/90833-te340
7. https://allspitfirepilots.org/aircraft/TE340
8. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/38605/supplement/2285/data.pdf
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._8_Flying_Training_School_RAF#History_of_203_AFS
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._226_Operational_Conversion_Unit_RAF
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Tibenham#Postwar_use

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
04-Aug-2023 21:25	Dr. John Smith	Updated
05-Aug-2023 08:13	Nepa	Updated
07-Aug-2023 21:55	Dr. John Smith	Updated