Date:	Friday 19 June 1953
Time:	day
Type:	Airspeed Oxford T Mk II
Owner/operator:	8 AFTS RAF
Registration:	HM745
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Barnato Farm, near Cromarty, Scotland -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Dalcross, Inverness (EGPE)
Destination airport:	RAF Dalcross, Inverness (EGPE)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Airspeed Oxford Mk.I HM745, 8 AFTS (Advanced Flying Training School), RAF: Delivered to 8 AFTS on 17 July 1951. Written off (destroyed) 19 June 1953 in a flying accident. The pilot was completing a local training sortie at RAF Dalcross, Inverness, performing "touch and go" landings and practice asymmetric (single engine) forced landings. On final approach to RAF Dalcross, while making a last steep turn to port, in order to join the approach path, the twin engine aircraft stalled and crashed in a field. The pilot was killed and the aircraft was destroyed.

Pilot - Acting Pilot Officer George Nicholson, RAF (aged 22) - killed on impact. He came from Horsley Woodhouse, Amber Valley, in Derbyshire, and his name is commemorated in a memorial there (see links #6 & #8). The inscription reads:

"REMEMBERING THOSE WHO HAVE DIED IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY SINCE 1945
SIDNEY PARKER
GUNNER ROYAL ARTILLERY
DIED 22ND MARCH 1948 AGE 29
GEORGE NICHOLSON
ACTING PILOT OFFICER R.A.F.
DIED 19TH JUNE 1953 AGE 22"

According to a reported in the "Derby Evening Telegraph" (16 November 2011) (see link #7):

"A PLAQUE featuring the names of two Horsley Woodhouse servicemen who have died since 1945 has been added to the war memorial. The names of Gunner Sidney Parker from the Royal Artillery and Acting Pilot Officer George Nicholson were added to the site at the Sitwell Memorial Recreation Ground as part of the village's Remembrance commemorations.

Horsley Woodhouse Parish Council has paid for the addition.

Council chairman Eric Lancashire said Gunner Parker contracted a disease while serving in the Far East during World War Two and died in 1948, aged 29.

Aucting P/O Nicholson died on his last training flight in Scotland in 1953, aged 22. He said: "It was his last solo flight before he would have been made a full flight officer. "The parish council has been agonising for a few years about how to recognise these people. At long last they have this tribute."

Cause: Poor judgement on part of the pilot who completed the last turn in a too steep angle, causing the aircraft to stall.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents, Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.145 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 Colin Cummings p 379
3. The Oxford, Consul & Envoy File (John F Hamlin, Air BrItian, 2001 p.173).
4. http://www.aircrashsites-scotland.co.uk/oxford_barnato.htm
5. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-airspeed-as10-oxford-t2-raf-dalcross-1-killed
6. http://derbyshirewarmemorials.com/amber/14178/14178.html
7. https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/servicemen-commemorated/story-13862035-detail/story.html
8. https://www.belpernews.co.uk/news/names-of-servicemen-added-to-village-memorial-1-3992638 .

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Sep-2008 01:00	ASN archive	Added
27-Feb-2013 18:40	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Damage, Narrative]
30-Jun-2014 04:26	angels one five	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Nature, Departure airport, Narrative]
26-Jul-2017 20:06	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
06-Dec-2018 18:02	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]
01-May-2021 21:12	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
02-May-2021 11:22	gerard	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Operator]
02-May-2021 20:58	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]