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Moordown air disaster

21 Mar 1944 · Moordown, Bournemouth, England

Royal Air Force Handley Page Halifax · Mechanical failure

From Bournemouth Airport (BOH) to Morocco

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Event

Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
Event fatalities
9 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
7
Survivors
0
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
Unknown
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
Military

Handley Page Halifax

Category
Airplane · from aircraft type
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
9
Route
From Bournemouth Airport (BOH)To Morocco

Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.

From the Wikipedia article

On 21 March 1944, a Royal Air Force Handley Page Halifax bomber crashed in Moordown, Bournemouth, Hampshire (now Dorset) soon after take-off from RAF Hurn (now known as Bournemouth Airport) killing nine people.

Crash

The Halifax, serial number JP137, was dispatched from No 3 Overseas Aircraft Dispatch Unit at Hurn at 00:33 hours bound for Morocco on transfer to the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces in the Second World War. Flying westerly, the plane turned into a wide arc, presumably in an attempt to return to Hurn, it flew over East Howe towards Wallisdown turning south over Talbot Woods and due east over Winton when it descended towards Moordown. The plane clipped buildings, including a Victorian chapel and the tram depot. The plane crashed in a residential area at the corner of Wimborne Road and Meadow Court Close. With a full fuel tank the plane burst into flames. There were no survivors on board. Two civilians were also killed in their homes.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Moordown air disaster” (revision 1359666946, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article

Sources

Wikipedia article: Moordown air disaster
Article
Moordown air disaster
Revision
1359666946 · 2026-06-16 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q123997991
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
Record
Wikipedia article "Moordown air disaster" (page 75529260, revision 1359666946)
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
Wikipedia article coordinates
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
Operation
operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.
  • The Wikipedia infobox's counts don't add up (9 fatalities and 0 survivors of 7 aboard); they are shown as the article gives them.