ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 18374
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| Date: | Friday 8 July 1955 |
| Time: | |
| Type: | Auster J/5B Autocar |
| Owner/operator: | Hunting Aero Surveys Ltd |
| Registration: | G-AMFO |
| MSN: | 2923 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Survey |
| Departure airport: | Elstree Hertfordshire (EGTR) |
| Perth/Scone Airfield, Scotland (EGPT/PSL) | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Auster J/5B Autocar G-AMFO: First civil registered (C of R R.2994/1) on 18/10/50 to Sissleys Cycles (Essex) Ltd., Dagenham, Essex. Registration cancelled/lapsed upon sale 10/2/53.
Sold on and re-registered (C of R R.2994/2) on 18/2/53 to Hunting Aero Surveys Ltd., Elstree, Hertfordshire
Written off (damaged beyond repair) when crashed at Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, on 8/7/1955. Registration G-AMFO cancelled as aircraft "destroyed" 14/7/1955. Flying Officer Peter M Bishop (the pilot of this aircraft) is commemorated in a stained glass window at St. George's Chapel Royal Air Force at Biggin Hill, Kent which gives the date of his death, an inscription from his brother, crests from two colleges at Oxford and the crest of No. 601 (County of London) Squadron.
His death is mentioned in the squadron's Operational Record Book at the UK National Archives. This (according to the IWM website - see link #4) states: "the ORB for that Squadron gave some information about Peter’s demise....and there it was In the monthly summary for July 1955 under ‘(i) OPERATIONS’ is the following entry:
FLYING OFFICER P.M. BISHOP WHO JOINED THIS SQUADRON ON COMING DOWN FROM OXFORD IN NOVEMBER 1953, MET HIS DEATH IN A FLYING TRAGEDY WHILST WORKING IN HIS CIVILIAN CAPACITY AS A PILOT FOR HUNTING AEROSURVEYS.
With his name and the month of his death confirmed and the information on the company he worked for, the next stage followed.
A search of a website that documents many air crashes indicates that an Auster J/5B Autocar, a small, single-engined high wing four-seater civil aircraft owned by Hunting Aerosurveys Limited crashed in Scotland on 8 July 1955 – the same date that is on the window at St. Georges Chapel, Biggin Hill.
So Peter did indeed fly with No. 600 Squadron but he met his death in Scotland when flying an Auster J/5B Autocar, a small, single-engined high wing four-seater civil aircraft. He had taken off from Elstree airfield in Hertfordshire, north of London.
Bearing the civil air registration G-AMFO, the aircraft was carrying a passenger, probably another employee of Hunting Aero Surveys when it crashed around 40 miles from its destination at Perth (Scone) airport. Armed with this information I found a picture of the aircraft on the Auster Heritage Group website.
Although the civilian air registration, the manufacturer’s construction number and the place of crash all match the information on the Air Safety Network website, it appears that the date of the crash has been wrongly captioned (8 July 1965 and not 8 July 1955) on the image."
Sources:
1. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 27/2502/3 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8423101
2. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AMFO.pdf
3. http://austerhg.org/gallery3/Auster-1243594292/Model_J5_A/G-AMFO
4. https://iwmvolunteerlondon.wordpress.com/tag/iwm-war-memorial-register/
5. http://600squadronassociation.com/guestbook/#comment-10890
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 17-May-2008 11:10 | ASN archive | Added |
| 25-Nov-2012 17:21 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Date, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
| 20-May-2019 15:49 | Richard | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
| 23-May-2020 20:09 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Total fatalities, Source, Narrative] |
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