Date:	Friday 11 October 1946
Time:	day
Type:	Supermarine Spitfire LF.VII
Owner/operator:	1 SFTS RIAF
Registration:	MT873
MSN:	6S 643793
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RIAF Peshawar, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, British India -   Pakistan
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RIAF Ambala, Ambala Cantt, Haryana, India
Destination airport:	RIAF Peshawar, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, British India

Narrative:
MT873: Spitfire LF. VIII, MSN 6S 643793. Built at Vickers Armstrongs (Supermarine) at Woolston, Southampton with Merlin M66 engine. To 9MU RAF Cosford. Shropshire 18-8-44. To 222MU RAF North Luffenham 29-8-44 for packing and crating for overseas shipment. Shipped on the 'LS.2019' 2-10-44, arriving India 4-11-44. To 152 Squadron, RAF in December 1944. To 1FTS RIAF on or after 10-3-46 when 152 Squadron RAF disbanded

Written off (damaged beyond repair) 12-10-46 when engine cut on landing overshot into fence at RIAF Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, British India (Pakistan since 1947). The engine cut in flight, the windscreen was covered in leaking oil, and smoke filled the cockpit, severely restricting the pilot's field of vision. The pilot then made a forced landing, during which the aircraft struck a fence on the airfield boundary, and was wrecked. One source (see link #5) states "trying to avoid parked a/c after landing ran into fence". The pilot survived without injury.

Crew of Spitfire MT873:
Pilot Officer (IND/3240) Faredun Dinshaw Irani RIAF - survived uninjured.

Pilot details: Date of Birth: 7-12-1926. Commissioned: 17-9-1945. Transferred to Indian Air Force after partition 1947. Rose to the rank of Wing Commander. Retired on 1-12-1966 when Released to Air India. Died on 2-3-2017 (91 Years age).

Airframe damage assessed as Cat E 12-10-46. Not repaired, Struck Off Charge 31-10-46 as Cat. E(FA)

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.230
3. Air-Britain Royal Air Force Aircraft MA100-MZ999
4. "RAF Write-offs 1946": Air Britain Aeromilitaria 1979 p.103: https://air-britain.com/pdfs/aeromilitaria/Aeromilitaria_1979.pdf
5. https://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Database/Aircraft/MT873
6. https://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Database/3240
7. https://allspitfirepilots.org/aircraft/MT873
8. https://www.avialogs.com/spitfire-and-seafire-registry/item/89807-mt873
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._152_Squadron_RAF#World_War_II
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacha_Khan_International_Airport

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
29-May-2023 12:41	Dr. John Smith	Added
02-Jun-2023 20:31	Nepa	Updated
13-Sep-2023 11:17	Dr. John Smith	Updated