Date:	Friday 9 September 1960
Time:	day
Type:	Beagle-Auster 6A Tugmaster
Owner/operator:	Lasham Gliding Club
Registration:	G-ARCY
MSN:	2482
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	2 mi from Lasham, Hampshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Farnborough Airfield, Farnborough, Hampshire (EGLF)
Destination airport:	Lasham, Hampshire (QLA/EGHL)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Beagle Auster 6A: Ex-RAF Auster AOP.6 TW624. Known RAF service from September 1946 was with 652 Squadron RAF [as "XM-A"], and 1905 Flight. Struck off charge 27.5.57 as Cat.5(G/I) and relegated to ground instructional airframe 7433M. Struck off charge upon sale to Auster Aircraft, and civilianized as a Beagle-Auster 6A Tugmaster. Reported to have been test flown in "Class B" markings as G-25-9.

First civil registered (C of R R6883/1) as G-ARCY 6.7.60 to Frank Horridge, Basingstoke, Hampshire. Written off (destroyed) 9.9.60 when crashed at Lasham, Hampshire on a return flight from participating in the 1960 SBAC Air Show at Farnborough.

After a cross-country flight with a glider in tow the aircraft made a low flight over the airfield, during which the tow rope was dropped. It then entered a steep climb and commenced a turn to the right. The climb continued to approximately 400 feet above ground when the aircraft became inverted and began to lose height. Rate of descent increased until it struck the ground in a nose-down inverted attitude, two miles from Lasham, Hampshire The pilot (the sole person on board) was killed.

According to a contemporary report ("Birmingham Daily Post" - Saturday 10 September 1960)

"18,000 SEE PILOT DIE IN CRASH
Soon after he had taken part in a display at the Farnborough Air Show yesterday the pilot of an Auster plane was killed.

About 18.000 people, the first public visitors to the show this year, had seen the Auster take off towing a glider. Plane and glider were on their way home to Lasham after giving a display of aerobatics before the main flying events took place.

Two miles from Lasham the Auster released the glider, dropped the tow-rope and circled the landing field. As the pilot turned to make his landing approach the plane stalled and plunged to the ground from 300 ft. It did not catch fire.

The pilot, Mr. A. N. N. Thackran, was a member of Surrey Gliding Club based at Lasham."

The headline and a lot of the report is highly misleading: although G-ARCY was en route from Farnborough to Lasham, no-one at the Farnborough Air Show would have seen the accident, not least because Lasham is 18 miles from Farnborough!

Registration G-ARCY cancelled 10.10.60 as "destroyed"

1. Birmingham Daily Post - Saturday 10 September 1960
2. Survey of accidents to aircraft in the United Kingdom 1960 / CAA
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985 p 53)
4. http://www.ukserials.com/losses_civil.htm
5. http://www.hampshireairfields.co.uk/hancrash.html
6. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-ARCY.pdf
7. http://austerhg.org/prod_list/pages.php?page=2380
8. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=14188.0
9. G-ARCY as TW624: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205180936 .

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-May-2008 11:10	ASN archive	Added
22-Feb-2012 00:20	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Registration, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Damage, Narrative]
28-May-2015 09:03	harro	Updated [Total fatalities, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
25-Feb-2020 15:04	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
25-Feb-2020 15:06	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
25-Feb-2020 15:07	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
26-Feb-2020 01:05	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
15-Oct-2021 07:33	TB	Updated [Location]