Date:	Tuesday 23 March 1943
Time:
Type:	Taylorcraft Auster AOP.III
Owner/operator:	652 Sqn RAF
Registration:	MZ161
MSN:	286
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	1 mile southwest of Furneux Pelham, Hertfordshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Delivered to 656 (?) Squadron on 9th March 1943, but was written-off on the 23rd of the same month, whilst taking evasive action from a Mosquito during a training flight. The Auster was being flown low along a valley one mile southwest of Furneux Pelham, Hertfordshire, when the pilot executed a steep turn to avoid the Mosquito and flew into the rising ground. The aircraft was destroyed by fire, the pilot being burnt.

1. Mike Draper, Auster Quarterly Vol 1 No 4 Winter/Spring 1976
2. Maslen-Jones, E.W., MC, DFC. Fire by Order: Recollections of Service with 656 Air Observation Post Squadron in Burma. Barnsley, UK: Leo Cooper/Pen And Sword Books, 1997. ISBN 0-85052-557-8
3. http://austerhg.org/prod_list/pages.php?page=170
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._656??_Squadron_RAF#Formation_and_World_War_II
5. 'Where the Lysanders were ..... (the story of Sawbridgeworth's airfields) Pub by Paul A Doyle 1995

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-May-2008 11:10	ASN archive	Added
28-Apr-2014 21:38	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Damage, Narrative, ]
09-Nov-2014 07:04	DG333	Updated [Operator, ]
18-Feb-2015 16:03	paddy	Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Phase, Narrative, ]
18-Feb-2015 16:23	paddy	Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, ]
08-May-2015 05:16	angels one five	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Narrative, ]
08-May-2015 05:18	angels one five	Updated [Narrative, ]
08-May-2015 09:20	angels one five	Updated [Narrative, ]
14-Nov-2018 06:51	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, Destination airport, ]