ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 230863
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| Date: | Tuesday 21 November 1944 |
| Time: | 23:25 LT |
| Type: |  Handley Page Halifax Mk III |
| Owner/operator: | 78 Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | MZ810 |
| MSN: | EY-F |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 7 / Occupants: 7 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | near Spaldington (near Goole, East Riding of Yorkshire, England) -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Breighton |
The crew took off at 17:21 hrs to undertake an operational flight to bomb the oil plant at Sterkrade-Holten (Germany).
The flight was the pilot's last operational flight of his tour and he was due to be screened after the flight. The crew appear to have bombed the target area as instructed without incident and made for home. On their return to Yorkshire they joined the landing circuit for Breighton airfield and awaited their turn to land on the runway in use. In the time the aircraft took off from Breighton and returned the wind direction was changing, the air pressure had also changed slightly. The wind had changed that much by the time this aircraft was into the landing circuit that all landings were delayed while the runway in use was changed. All aircraft in the circuit were told to continue circling the airfield at a height over 1000ft and wait their turn to land. Because of the high experience of this pilot this aircraft was asked to make a dummy landing run over the new flare path to check the visibility. The Halifax flew as instructed at between 50 and 100 feet above the runway, after crossing the far end of the airfield boundary the aircraft climbed to around 300 feet and then began a turn to rejoin the airfield circuit. At 23:25 hrs while making the turn the aircraft lost height, the port wing tip clipped trees in an area of woodland called Brindleys Plantation near the village of Spaldington, around two miles south-east of Breighton airfield. It then cartwheeled, struck a small building in the wood and caught fire. Sadly all seven airmen in the aircraft were killed. An investigation could not be certain exactly what had caused the aircraft to loose height but it was thought that the pilot believed the aircraft to have been higher above the ground when he began making the turn, this was because the air pressure had changed by 6 millibars in the time the aircraft took off (when the altimeter zero was set to the ground level at Breighton) and the time it returned when the zero reading would have effectively been below the actual ground height.
Pilot - F/Lt Malcolm Stjernqvist Buchanan DFC RAAF - 31 years old - Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire
Flight Engineer - Sgt Robert James Barron RAFVR - 27 years old - Insch New Cemetery, Aberdeenshire
Navigator - F/Lt Wilbert James Robertson RCAF - 25 years old - Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire
Bomb Aimer - P/O Lawrence Albert Welsh RCAF - 20 years old - Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire
Wireless Operator - P/O James Hedley Rice RAFVR - 34 years old - Ashby de la Zouch Cemetery, Leicestershire
Air Gunner - P/O James McCannon RAFVR - 23 years old - Ahamlish Cemetery, Sligo, Repulic of Ireland.
Air Gunner - P/O James Vincent Reddington RAFVR - 19 years old - Edgerton Cemetery, Huddersfield, Yorkshire
Sources:
http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/yorkshire/york44/mz810.html
http://aircrewremembered.com/buchanan-malcolm-dfc.html
Google Maps
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 29 April 1942 | W7663 | 78 Sqn RAF | 7 | Missing - North Sea |  |
mis |
| 2 June 1942 | W1143 | 78 Sqn RAF | 6 | Haringvliet off Hellevoetsluis, Zuid-Holland |  |
w/o |
| 26 July 1943 | JD330 | 78 Sqn RAF | 4 | near Beeckerwerth, Duisburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen |  |
w/o |
| 27 September 1943 | JD416 | 78 Sqn RAF | 8 | between Eckerde - Großgoltern (Barsinghausen, Niedersachsen) | |
w/o |
| 13 June 1944 | LV820 | 78 Sqn RAF | 7 | Bosc-Mesnil, Seine-Maritime département | |
w/o |
| 2 February 1945 | NA167 | 78 Sqn RAF | 4 | Friedrichsfeld, Voerde, Nordrhein-Westfalen | |
w/o |
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 25-Nov-2019 06:59 | tachel | Added |
| 09-Sep-2021 11:32 | TigerTimon | Updated [Date, Time, Other fatalities, Location, Source, Narrative] |
| 09-Sep-2021 12:19 | TigerTimon | Updated [Location] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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