Date:	Friday 26 July 1946
Time:	14:20
Type:	Vickers Wellington Mk III
Owner/operator:	CGS RAF
Registration:	BJ884
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Other fatalities:	1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Appleton-le-Moors, NW of Pickering, North Yorkshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Leconfield, East Yorkshire
Destination airport:	RAF Leconfield, East Yorkshire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
On 26th July 1946 110 (City of York) ATC Squadron were holding their annual summer camp at the Central Gunnery School (CGS) at Leconfield. As part of their camp the Cadets were being allowed to be taken as passengers on training flights the CGS were undertaking. ("Air Experience Flights"). There is a suggestion that more than one Wellington was being used for this but if this was so then the take-off times were staggered and their flights did not interrupt or engage with each other.

The Wellington concerned in this incident had suffered an engine malfunction prior to take-off and the two cadets already down to have a flight on this aircraft were allocated a different aircraft to have their trip on. On its repair two further cadets would be allowed to go up in this original aircraft for what become the ill-fated flight.

The ill-fated flight finally took off with a pilot and two cadets on board at around 14.00 hrs, they flew northwards and towards the North Yorkshire Moors. The pilot of the Wellington carried out a Bomber Affiliation training exercise with other aircraft, the Wellington was being subjected to a number of dummy attacks by two Spitfires. It was on one of these attacks and twenty-five minutes into the flight that tragedy struck at 14.20 hrs; one of the Spitfires (SL676) was making a head-on attack on the Wellington when the pilot of the Spitfire misjudged the distance between the two aircraft.

By pure accident the two aircraft collided head on more or less directly over the village of Appleton-le-Moors, to the north west of Pickering, North Yorkshire. The Wellington partly broke up in the air, with parts being scattered across the main street in Appleton-le-Moors and on houses in the village. Both aircraft, including the main section of this Wellington came down in flames on and near the village football field. There would be no survivors. At the inquest to their deaths, the Coroner, Mr R K Smith gave a verdict of "death by misadventure".
Crew:
W/O (P/780120) Henryk Szwedowski (Pilot) RAF of Poland. Buried Newark Cemetery (plot, grave G.322).
Passenger - Cadet William Anthony (Tony) Lain (1796) of 110 City of York ATC. Buried York Cemetery.
Passenger - Cadet Robert Hall (116) of 116 Archbishop Holgate Grammer School ATC. Cremated Leeds. He was still at school.

The pilot of Spitfire SL676 - Flt Lt Stanley McAndrew -was also killed. Probable cause: Misjudgement of the distance between both aircraft on the part of the Spitfire pilot.

1. Halley, James J (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.48. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.191
3. "RAF Write-offs 1946": Air Britain Aeromilitaria 1979 p.101: https://air-britain.com/pdfs/aeromilitaria/Aeromilitaria_1979.pdf
4. Royal Air Force Aircraft BA100-BZ999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain)
5. CGS RAF ORB for the period 1-1-1946 to 31-12-1950: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR29/1789: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4101499
6. http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/planes/46-50/bj884.html
7. http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9165118.___I_should_have_been_in_doomed_aircraft___/
8. http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/air-training-corps-roll-of-honour.52944/page-2#post-620051
9. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-vickers-417-wellington-iii-appleton-le-moors-3-killed
10. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/7504418/szwedowski,-henryk/
11. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2414599/lain,-william-anthony/
12. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2408790/hall,-robert/
13. https://www.rafcommands.com/archive/00119.php
14. https://listakrzystka.pl/en/szwedowski-henryk/
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appleton-le-Moors

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Sep-2008 01:00	ASN archive	Added
09-Mar-2013 14:03	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
26-Jul-2013 13:43	Nepa	Updated [Operator]
27-Apr-2017 21:09	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Operator, Other fatalities, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
29-Nov-2018 09:50	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Operator]
14-Nov-2019 21:12	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
14-Nov-2019 21:29	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
17-Nov-2019 17:20	Anon.	Updated [Operator, Operator]
14-Jun-2023 01:24	Dr. John Smith	Updated [[Operator, Operator]]
14-Jun-2023 08:30	Nepa	Updated [[[Operator, Operator]]]