Peak District Air Accident Research

Chipmunk T. Mk.10 WP968 of the Manchester University Air Squadron crashed on Smithills Moor near Bolton on the 22nd December 1965

The two crew of the aircraft were on a training flight from Woodvale near Southport when, as an article in the Bolton Evening News described, the aircraft developed a fault. The pilot decided to force land the aircraft and they carried out a downhill landing on Winter Hill.  The aircraft's fixed undercarriage was torn off in the landing and the engine cowling was splayed out but the rest of the aircraft remained intact. The two crew made their way off the hill to a nearby farm where they called Woodvale to inform them of the accident.

This photograph shows where the aircraft crashed, it first struck the ground behind where the picture was taken from and came to rest in the foreground.

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