Date:	Saturday 8 May 1948
Time:	15:35 LT
Type:	Supermarine Spitfire Mk XIV
Owner/operator:	611 (West Lancashire) Sqn RAF
Registration:	RN210
MSN:	6S.663426
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Grange Farm, Lower Lane, Freckleton Marsh, Preston, Lancashire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Woodvale, Southport, Lancashire
Destination airport:	RAF Woodvale, Southport, Lancashire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
RN210: Spitfire Mk. XIV, MSN 6S-663426. Delivered to the RAF at 39 MU 20-2-45. Issued to 41 Squadron 22-3-45. Cat AC damaged on operations 25-4-45. This resulted in the aircraft being returned to 409 Repair and Servicing Unit, from where it went on to Air Service Training for further repairs and modifications by the end of May 1945. To Fighter Leaders Squadron CFE (Central Flying Establishment) 26-9-46. To 611 (West Lancashire) Squadron, RAF Woodvale, Southport, Lancashire 23-8-47

Spitfire RN210 took off at about 15:00 hours on Saturday the 8-5-48, accompanied by another Spitfire. The two aircraft were to carry out a practice high altitude climb. At 21,000 feet over the Ribble Estuary the second pilot asked his leader, Flying-Officer Griffiths, how much higher he intended to climb. F/O Griffiths replied that he was checking his oxygen supply, but gave no indication that anything was other than normal.

Moments later F/O Griffith's Spitfire began to rock laterally, and then fell away into a spiral dive. The pilot did not respond to radio calls and the aircraft crashed in a marshy area near Grange Farm, Lower Lane, Freckleton Marsh, Preston, Lancashire, and exploded.

The pilot, Flying-Officer Robert Hugh P. Griffiths, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, was killed. Buried St Peters Churchyard, Formby, Merseyside R.I.P.

The subsequent Board of Inquiry concluded that the cause of the crash was due to the pilot lapsing into unconsciousness due to anoxia (oxygen starvation), and this, in turn, was due to either a failure of the oxygen supply equipment, or incorrect management of the oxygen supply by the pilot

In 2007, the Lancashire Aircraft Investigation Team (LAIT) staged an archeological "dig", and recovered substantial pieces of the wreckage, including the Rolls Royce Griffon engine, a fairly intact Hispano 20mm cannon, a .50 caliber Browning machine gun and the undercarriage legs from a depth of 15 feet. Also, as a result of the 2007 "dig", some of the pilot's personal effects were recovered, and eventually returned to his widow, who was still alive and living in Scotland.

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 1946-1949 by Colin Cummings p 391
3. 611 Sqn RAF ORB for the period 1-6-1946 to 31-3-1957: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR27/2517: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2505155
4. "RAF Write offs 1948": Air Britain Aeromilitaria No.1 1979: https://air-britain.com/pdfs/aeromilitaria/Aeromilitaria_1979.pdf
5. http://laituk.org/Spitfire%20RN210%20article.htm
6. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/p097.html
7. https://allspitfirepilots.org/aircraft/RN210
8. https://www.avialogs.com/spitfire-and-seafire-registry/item/102182-rn210
9. https://www.rafcommands.com/database/serials/details.php?uniq=RN210
10. http://www.611squadronrauxaf.co.uk/history/Roll.html
11. http://www.south-lancs-aviation.bravepages.com/Woodvale%20Incidents.htm
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._611_Squadron_RAF#Postwar_operations
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Woodvale
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freckleton

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
06-Sep-2011 02:58	angels one five	Added
27-Dec-2011 03:02	Nepa	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Narrative]
10-Jan-2012 15:42	Nepa	Updated [Operator]
12-Dec-2014 21:31	angels one five	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Narrative]
27-Mar-2015 18:04	Jixn	Updated [Time, Operator, Departure airport]
18-Nov-2019 17:24	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Cn, Location, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]