Date:	Thursday 23 September 1948
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.89A Dragon Rapide
Owner/operator:	Arab Airways
Registration:	TJ-AAQ
MSN:	6546
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 6
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Irbid, Irbid Governate -   Jordan
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Passenger
Departure airport:	Beirut, Lebanon
Destination airport:	Amman, Jordan
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
c/no. 6546: Taken on charge as X7386 under Contract No B.104592/40 at 18 MU RAF Dumfries 27.7.41. (Gipsy Queen III engines #70087/70088). To CFS RAF Upavon 17.8.41. To 4 AOS (Air Observers School) RAF West Freugh 4.6.42. Returned to 18 MU RAF Dumfries 17.9.42. To 2 Signals School, RAF Yatesbury 21.10.42; renamed 2 Radio School 1.1.43; coded “205”. To DeHavilland Witney, Oxfordshire for maintenance 20.6.45; to 5 MU RSAF Kemble 8.11.45. Returned to DeHavilland Witney, Oxfordshire for maintenance 28.11.45; redelivered to 18 MU RAF Dumfries 8.5.46.

Struck off charge when sold 19.12.47 to W.A Rollason Ltd, Croydon. Registered as G-AKOI (C of R 12096) 4.12.47 to W.A. Rollason Ltd, Croydon. C of A 10098 issued 7.5.48. Registration G-AKOI cancelled 7.7.48 as 'sold abroad', but later deleted in favour of 'Destroyed 23.9.48'.

In fact, shipped to South Africa and painted in Pan African Air Charter colours. Purchased by Boris Senior for Israeli Air Force but detained in Egypt on ferry flight 5.48 [pilot Alf Lindsay]. Delivered to Jordan and registered as TJ-AAQ 7.48 to Arab Airways Association Ltd.

Written off (destroyed) when shot down by Giddy Lichtmann of 101 Squadron, Israeli Air Force in a Messerschmitt 109 on 23.9.48 at Irbid, Jordan en-route Beirut to Amman; 3 of the 6 persons on board killed, including BBC correspondent John Reginald Nixon and Daily Telegraph journalist David Woodford. According to one account (see link #5):

"One Dragon Rapide that Boris Senior had bought had been interned by Egypt on its way through the country. Egypt released the crew but kept the airplane and sold it to Jordan's Arab Airways, which registered it as TJ-AAQ and painted it in the company's bright red colors in July.

On Sept. 22,[1948] Lichtman was on a solo patrol sortie when he spotted this very same red Dragon Rapide flying at 2,000 feet over Safed on a northwesterly heading. Lichtman caught up to the Dragon Rapide and lowered his gear, indicating that he wanted the other airplane to land. The British pilot turned his Dragon Rapide into a 180-degree turn with no apparent effort to land, so Lichtman fired a short burst in front of it. The Arab Airways plane continued to seemingly ignore Lichtman, so he finally fired at it and set it on fire. Several dozens of feet from the ground, three passengers, including two British journalists, jumped out of the flaming airplane and were killed by the fall. The pilot muscled the plane into a crash landing and, along with two passengers that hadn't jumped, survived the crash".

As reported in a contemporary newspaper ("Grey River Argus", 25 September 1948, Page 5 - See link #7):

"Two British Correspondents Shot Down in Arab Plane
LONDON, Sept. 23.
Two Britons and an Arab were killed when'a Jewish fighter plane shot down an Arab airliner in flames after pursuit over the Transjordan area to-day. The pilot and two other passengers, of whom is an American, were injured. An Arab Legion spokesman said: “I have reported this truce violation to the United Nations observers and asked for an immediate investigation.”

Arab Legion headquarters said the plane, which was flying from Beirut to Amman, was over Lebanon when the Jewish fighter began to attack. The fighter, which was described as a Russian 'Yak' type, followed the Arab plane for 18 miles into Transjordan, where it crashed in flames.

Iraqi Army headquarters said the fighter was marked with a Red Cross and so escaped interference during the return flight to Palestine. The Britons killed were David Woodford, Daily Telegraph correspondent, and John Nixon, a special correspondent for the 8.8.C. Woodford, who during the war was personal aide and liaison officer for several high British officials, including Lord Gort, Lord Moyne, General MacFarland and Sir Edward Grigg, joined the Daily Telegraph as a Middle East correspondent in 1945. Nixon was a war correspondent for Reuters in France and the Mediterranean before joining the 8.8.C."

There is a certain degree of irony that an aircraft intended to be delivered to the Israeli Air Force ended up being shot down and destroyed BY the Israeli Air Force!

John Reginald Nixon is included in a memorial to all BBC Journalists who were killed in the line of duty, which was erected at BBC Broadcasting House on 16 June 2008 (see links #8 & #9)

Irbid (Arabic: إِربِد), known in ancient times as Arabella or Arbela (Άρβηλα in Ancient Greek), is the capital and largest city of Irbid Governorate.

1. Noticias de hoy 24 September 1948, p6
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft X1000-Z9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain 1984)
3. http://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/dh89.pdf
4. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AKOI.pdf
5. https://101squadron.com/101real/people/lichtman.html
6. Sydney Morning Herald 24 September 1948: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18085858
7. "Two British Correspondents Shot Down in Arab Plane" - Grey River Argus, 25 September 1948, Page 5: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GRA19480925.2.55
8. https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/buildings/broadcasting-house/breathing#johnreginaldnixon
9. BBC Memorial: https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/58768
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irbid

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
04-Apr-2019 11:54	TB	Added
10-Mar-2025 23:56	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Category, ]