Little Baldon air crash

Little Baldon air crash

Monument in St Lawrence's parish church, Toot Baldon
Accident summary
Date	6 July 1965
Summary	Mechanical fault due to Metal Fatigue
Site	Little Baldon, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom Coordinates: 51°40′38.64″N 1°10′51.71″W / 51.6774000°N 1.1810306°W / 51.6774000; -1.1810306
Passengers	35
Crew	6
Fatalities	41
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	Handley Page Hastings
Operator	Royal Air Force
Registration	TG577
Flight origin	RAF Abingdon, England
Destination	RAF Benson, England

The Little Baldon air crash occurred on 6 July 1965 when a Handley Page Hastings C1A transport aircraft operated by No. 36 Squadron Royal Air Force, registration TG577, crashed into a field in Little Baldon, near Chiselhampton, Oxfordshire, shortly after taking off from RAF Abingdon. The flight was captained by Flt Lt John Akin. All 41 people aboard, including six crew, perished in the crash, making it the third worst air crash in the United Kingdom at the time.

A subsequent inquest jury returned a verdict of accidental death. The inquest found that the accident was due to metal fatigue of two bolts in the elevator system.

On the day of the accident the Hastings flew from its base at RAF Colerne, Wiltshire to RAF Abingdon, where it picked up a number of parachutists undergoing a short voluntary parachute course. The intention was to drop them over RAF Weston-on-the-Green, after which the aircraft would land at RAF Benson. There were 24 RAF and 11 Army passengers. They included eight RAF parachute jump instructors, three RAF air loadmasters, 13 other members of the RAF, three senior NCOs from the Parachute Regiment (two of them members of the Territorial Army), and seven Parachute Regiment recruits and a Royal Artillery gunner from the Airborne Forces Depot at Aldershot. Two of the instructors were members of the RAF Falcons parachute display team.