Talk:Donna Nook Air Weapons Range

1981 Accident

Here is the original text

On Friday 9 January 1981 at 1.35pm, a Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II from the 510th Tactical Fighter Squadron crashed. A large green helicopter from RAF Woodbridge attended, and fire engines from Mablethorpe, Louth, North Somercotes, and Alford, with RAF firemen.

• The problem with the above is that it gives entirely the wrong impression, probably because it comes from the Grimsby Evening Telegraph - not really the best source for air crash facts.

In a nutshell; The A-10 was completing a strafing run at Donna Nook Weapons Range, but on climbing away was seen to turn upside down and crash into the North Sea.

1. The link to the 510th takes you to Aviano AirBase in Italy, and it is only after some digging that you find Major Moxon took off from RAF Bentwaters/RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk - this isn't mentioned.
2. The fire engines were mentioned because this is a Grimsby based newspaper, and that is what the local people want to read about. I doubt they were of much use locating an aircraft that ended up in the North Sea.
3. Indeed, the fact that the body was not located until three weeks later is not explained in any way; instead we get to read all about his wife and family and where they lived.

34 year old Major Arthur Lloyd Moxon from Huron, South Dakota was killed. He had two sons, Michael aged 6 and Timmy aged 4, and wife Colleen. He had been in England since February 1980, having graduated in 1968. He flew the North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco in Vietnam in 1970 and 1971,  and lived on New Street in Fressingfield in north Suffolk. His body was found on Wednesday 28 January 1981.

Oh, and the "large green helicopter" would have been an HH-53 from 67 ARRS, a unit that at that time was specifically designed to perform search-and-rescue missions for the USAF, and conveniently based at RAF Woodbridge. What it does now is <coughs> related, but slightly different.

Maybe I am being harsh, but I propose to re-write this section so that it is more encyclopaedic, and a bit less 'Hello' magazine. Per WP:NOTNEWS

WendlingCrusader (talk) 02:37, 6 December 2024 (UTC)