Date:	Wednesday 26 September 1945
Time:	day
Type:	De Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moth
Owner/operator:	3 GTS RAF
Registration:	DE887
MSN:	85722
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RAF Gaydon, Warwickshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Shobdon, Leominster, Herefordshire,
Destination airport:	RAF Gaydon, Warwickshire

Narrative:
De Havilland DH.82A MSN 85772: Taken on charge as DE887 nominally at 15 MU RAF Wroughton, Wiltshire 28.11.42; sent to long term storage locally in ‘purgatory’ in the Oxford area; returned to Morris Motors Cowley, Oxford for erection 23.2.44. Issued to 3 GTS (Glider Training School), at Stoke Orchard 7.3.44; to Wellesbourne Mountford, Warwickshire 7.45

Written off (damaged beyond repair) 26.9.45 when stalled/spun in on overshoot while landing at RAF Gaydon, Warwickshire. Aircraft caught fire on impact with the ground. Of the two crew, both were seriously injured, and one died the following day of injuries sustained.

Crew of Tiger Moth DE887:
Lieutenant Smolders, The Glider Pilot Regiment A.A.C (Pilot) - survived but sustained serious injuries
Corporal Colin Gerald Fitzgerald, The Glider Pilot Regiment, A.A.C. (14890801) - survived crash, but died 27.9.45 (next day) of injuries sustained. Buried at Harrow (Eastcote Lane) Cemetery, Middlesex

1. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.9. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft DA100-DZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1987 p 17)
3. http://www.aviationarchaeology.org.uk/marg/crashes1945.htm
4. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/p857.html
5. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2734567/COLIN%20GERALD%20FITZGERALD/
6. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/production-lists/DH82.pdf
7. http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/airborne-forces-headstones.19601/#post-236163
8. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?19616-450927-Unaccounted-Airmen-27-09-1945
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glider_Pilot_Regiment

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
02-Nov-2019 00:39	Dr. John Smith	Added
02-Nov-2019 01:08	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
03-Nov-2019 09:20	Anon.	Updated [Operator, Operator]
26-Aug-2021 21:32	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Source, Narrative, Category]
27-Aug-2021 10:20	Anon.	Updated [Operator, Narrative, Operator]