ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 230276
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| Date: | Tuesday 21 November 1944 |
| Time: | 21:45 LT |
| Type: |  Handley Page Halifax Mk VII |
| Owner/operator: | 426 (Thunderbird) Sqn RCAF |
| Registration: | NP778 |
| MSN: | OW-A |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 7 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | around 200 yards north of Flawith, North Yorkshire, England -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire |
The crew took off at 15:47 hrs to undertake an operational flight to bomb an oil plant at Castrop-Rauxel in Germany. The aircraft received minor Flak damage to the rear fuselage shortly after leaving the target area while over Germany. On the return to the general area of their base at Linton-on-Ouse, it entered the landing circuit and later made radio contact with the ground contollers. It was given landing instructions but this was not acknowledged and the aircraft later found to have flown into the ground at speed around 200 yards north of Flawith at 21:45 hrs. It had passed through a number of hedges and a row of trees causing the aircraft to break up and a fire develop when it came to rest in a turnip field. Visibility was not perfect at the time of the crash but it did not prevent other returning crews landing at Linton-on-Ouse that evening. While five of the crew were killed two survived. The survivors later stated when the aircraft was in the landing circuit the pilot transmitted on the aircraft's intercom that he had lost sight of the runway at Linton-on-Ouse and requested that the navigator go from the rest position at the back of the aircraft to the cockpit. Soon after they then received an instruction over the intercom to put on parachutes and immediately afterwards the crash occurred. They did not learn why this order was made by the pilot, the surviving navigator assumed there was a radical problem which had effected the pilot controlling the aircraft. A detailed examination of the wreckage took place and although the control mechanism was destroyed by fire it was thought highly likely that loose equipment within the aircraft had fouled the elevator controls causing the pilot difficulties and the eventual crash.
Pilot - P/O Thomas John Hunt RCAF - 30 years old - Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire
Flight Engineer - P/O Hartley Ernest Reynolds RCAF - 27 years old - Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire
Bomb Aimer - F/O Garnet Illingsworth Hopper RCAF - 21 years old - Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire
Wireless Operator - P/O David Jason Stevens RCAF - 21 years old - Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire
Mid Upper Gunner - P/O James Neil Atkinson RCAF - 19 years old - Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire
Navigator - F/O J G Rae RCAF - injured
Rear Gunner - F/Sgt Glen William Murray RCAF - injured
Sources:
http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/yorkshire/york44/np778.html
http://www.6bombergroup.ca/Nov44/Nov21~2244.html
Google Maps
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 1 November 1944 | NP709 | 426 (Thunderbird) Sqn RCAF | 7 | Steinstraße, Haan, Nordrhein-Westfalen |  |
w/o |
| 5 March 1945 | PN228 | 426 (Thunderbird) Sqn RCAF | 7 | Near Nun Monkton, Yorkshire | |
w/o |
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 29-Oct-2019 13:18 | tachel | Added |
| 09-Sep-2021 11:21 | TigerTimon | Updated [Date, Time, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
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