Date:	Saturday 17 August 1940
Time:	day
Type:	Hawker Hurricane Mk I
Owner/operator:	302 (Poznanski) Sqn RAF
Registration:	P3927
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Weel, near Beverley, East Yorkshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Leconfield, East Yorkshire
Destination airport:

Narrative:
302 (Polish) Sqn RAF was formed on 10 July 1940, at RAF Leconfield in York with 163 Polish personnel, nearly all veterans of the Polish and French campaigns, and 44 British (including 11 officers) and after soon days received 18 Hurricanes I. Training of pilots and mechanics on new equipment went very smoothly, and the squadron was declared operational on 15 August.

On August 17, the unit recorded the first accident. Plt Off Czeslaw Glowczynski, a pre-war pilot having claimed 3.5 victories and one damaged in September 1939 over Paland and another victory and two probables over France in June 1940 was undertaking a training flight at 6,000ft when his Hurricane I P3927 suffered engine failure and soon caught fire in the air. The pilot did not see the fire and tried to land. He attempted to force-land near Weel village but crashed and was thrown out of the aircraft. The Unit ORB states that he was taken to "Beverley Base Hospital". He was badly burnt and wound not resume operational flying until April 1941, so missing the Battle of Britain, but then became an ace when a scored a new victory (his last) on 30 December 1941. He survived the war, was a co-founder of the Polish Air Force Association and died on 17 December 2000 in Warsaw.

The aircraft was too badly damaged to be repaired and was written off. It was built to contract 962371/38 by The Hawker Aircraft Co Ltd. at Brooklands/Langley and was awaiting collection at the beginning of July 1940. It was taken on charge by 302 Sqn at Leconfield on 13 July 1940 when the squadron formed.

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft P1000-P9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1979)
2. “Poles in defence of Great Britain: July 1940-June 1941”, by Robert Gretzyngier and Wojtek Matusiak. ISBN 1902304543
3. http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/yorkshire/york40/p3927.html
4. http://www.polishsquadronsremembered.com/302/302story.html
5. http://orb.polishaf.pl/302sqn/1940-3/1940-08-no-302-squadron-f540
6. https://ne-diary.genuki.uk/Inc/ISeq_06.html
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czes%C5%82aw_G%C5%82%C3%B3wczy%C5%84ski
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weel
9. http://wikimapia.org/#lang=fr&lat=53.840372&lon=-0.384903&z=12&m=w

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
01-Aug-2008 23:37	Anon.	Added
04-Jan-2012 14:30	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Narrative]
30-May-2013 17:07	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
19-Sep-2017 09:16	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Location, Phase, Nature, Source, Narrative]
26-May-2019 00:32	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Departure airport, Source]
26-May-2019 00:32	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
20-Jun-2023 08:10	Nepa	Updated [[Source]]