Noorduyn UC-64A Norseman 43-35439 of the 10th Depot Repair Squadron, 10th Air Depot Group USAAF, crashed on Shining Tor on the 29th September 1944
Arnold Fredrickson | 2nd Lieutenant | Pilot | OK |
On the 29th September 1944 2nd Lt Fredrickson was tasked with a liaison flight from Burtonwood near Warrington to RAF Winthorpe near Newark on Trent in Nottinghamshire and back. He had left Burtonwood at roughly 13:45 and took some 45 minutes to cover the 80 miles to Newark, having spent 1.5 hours at Newark 2nd Lt Fredrickson set off for the return leg back to Burtonwood. Outbound he had encountered low cloud over the hills for about 5 minutes, however conditions had worsened by the time he returned. Once airborne he encountered a strong headwind and as such expected the flight to take longer than outbound, after flying for an hour he assumed he was more than likely beyond the hills and descended. While still in cloud Fredrickson spotted ground just beneath him and shortly after struck rising ground. The aircraft turned over and caught fire though Arnold Fredrickson was able to escape the aircraft before the fire had taken hold.
He made his way off the hill to Stake Farm where according to local legend he arrived clutching a piece of the aircraft the aircraft, when asked what it was for he replied, its to fend off the coyotes.

We carried out a closer inspection of the site during 2005 and discovered a Yale type lock that had been made in the USA by the lock manufacturer Corbin Russwin along with an alloy part bearing a Noorduyn inspection stamp, thus proving beyond all reasonable doubt that this is the crash site of 43-35439. However despite this evidence a recent publication has insisted that this site is that of Defiant T3921, such incorrect assertions in books have proved very hard to put right though in this case the physical evidence from the site is clear.



