On Friday, 2nd January 1953 this 205 Advanced Flying School aircraft took off from Middleton St.George airfield at 14.39hrs with the pilot detailed to undertake a flight at high altitude and to undertake a high speed flying exercise. Around six minutes after taking off the aircraft was flying over Teesdale when it dived into the ground around fifty yards from Crookbeck House, around a mile west of Cotherstone. The resulting explosion scattered burning fragments of the aircraft onto the roofs at the farm, setting fire to and damaging the house and a barn.
Pilot - P/O Ronald Edward Thorneycroft Bowater RAF (2530440), aged 19. Cremated Golders Green Crematorium, London.
Ronald Bowater was from Wealdstone, London. As a boy he attended the Harrow Weald County School and then worked in the finance department of Middlesex County Council prior to joining the RAF for National Service.