Brantly B.2 G-ARZI near Hartforth.
During the first week of February 1963 the UK was affected by heavy snowfall which saw many roads blocked. Isolated villages and farms became cut off and helicopters were used to assist the civilian population in various ways. On Thursday, 7th February 1963 a helicopter, being operated by Durham Police at the time, was put to use in the Stainmore area. The helicopter was used to fly a young girl from the remote Bar Gap farm, around three miles south west of Bowes to a waiting ambulance at Bowes, to be then driven the rest of the journey by road to hospital. The helicopter landed on the lawn behind the keep of Bowes Castle and the girl was taken onward on her journey. Owing to the weather the helicopter then remained at Bowes overnight but on the morning of Friday, 8th February 1963 when it came to taking off from Bowes to fly back to Middleton St.George airfield where it was based, the pilot found that the skids had frozen to the ground. It was eventually freed, took off and headed east though the weather conditions appear to have been less than ideal. Around two miles west of Scotch Corner the pilot deemed the conditions were too bad to continue so attempted a forced landing in a field next to the A66 road but unfortunately the rotor blades struck a snowdrift. This caused the helicopter to spin around and tip onto its side. Both pilot and passenger / owner of the aircraft, who was the brother of actress Wendy Craig, escaped injury. Exactly where this incident occurred is not known but it was probably near the A66 above the villages of Hartforth and Gilling West.
The helicopter was operated by Heliconair Ltd, of Darlington and was used an experimental police helicopter, owned and operated by Durham Police from their Aycliffe headquarters and Middleton St.George airfield. It had the honour of being the first police helicopter in Britain. Following this crash near Scotch Corner it was repaired and soon sold on, but was replaced by a second Brantly G-ASEI.
Pilot - Mr Richard Dorman.
Passenger (owner) - Mr Alistair Craig.