On the 26th of January 1941 the pilot of this aircraft was on a training flight from Church Fenton, he reportedly took off without establishing R/T contact. At 04.50hrs the aircraft flew into high ground near Masham in bad weather with the pilot attempting to get below cloud because he stated he thought he was over water. The water could well have been one of the reservoirs near the crash site.

Pilot - P/O R M Graham RAF, injured. No further details are known on the pilot.

The aircraft was built to contract 43506/35 by Bristol at Filton and delivered to 144 Sqdn on the 27th of August 1937. It was transferred to No. 5 MU on the 20th of April 1939 for storage and refurbishment and then issued to 145 Sqdn on the 14th of November 1939. It was later transferred to 5 OTU on the 16th of April 1940 with whom it suffered a Cat.R/FA accident on the 13th of May 1940. It was repaired and ROS and continued to serve with 5 OTU until transferred to 54 OTU on 10th of December 1940 where it had a short life before being Cat.E2/FA on the date of the crash detaile above.

I located the site in February 2006.