Halifax at Wombleton airfield.
The Halifax crashed whilst landing on the trainee pilots first dual circuits and landings flight on the 17th of May 1944. The exercise
began at 10.05hrs and at 11.30hrs, whilst on short finals and whilst flying in a slight cross wind, the aircrafts starboard wing dropped which the pilot corrected but
the port wheel contacted the ground very hard,
causing the oleo leg to collapse, resulting in a ground loop. The crew of eight were not injured. The collapse was investigated and it was found
that a crack in undercarriage had gone un-noticed and this hard landing had been too much for it.
The aircraft was built to Contract B982938/39 by E.E.C. Ltd at Salmesbury and delivered to 405 Sqdn at Topcliffe in early October 1942 where it had a brief stay.
It transferred to 1659 HCU Leeming on 24th October 1942. It suffered a Cat.B/FA accident on 23rd January 1944 and was dismantled and
removed to the YARD for repair. On completion of repair it was issued to 1666 HCU at Wombleton in early May 1944 and was written off following the
incident detailed above with Cat. E2/FA damage although initially it must have been deemed repairable as the AM1180 gives the damage to the airframe as Cat B, along with the
two port engines. The starboard engines were undamaged.
Instructor - F/O Stewart RCAF (K/17000), ok.
Pupil Pilot - F/O G Heron RCAF (J/27687), ok.
And crew, though to be six of the following
W Op / Air Gunner - F Sgt Jim Beetham RCAF, of London, Ontario, Canada, ok.
Rear Gunner - F/S Archibald, nicknamed "Archie".
F/O Balmer.
F/O Christie.
F/S Fox.
Sgt Hynes.
F/S Neill
W R Chorley's Bomber Command Losses book states two differing names on the aircraft, those of Instructor, F/O H Gowen RCAF, and pupil pilot,
F/O L Stewart RCAF. F/O Heron was involved in the incident detailed above as his log book states so
but there could have been another trainee pilot on board. (There could even be a second incident occuring at Wombleton on this date but no record of a second has been found).
My thanks to Mr R Beetham for all of the information on this page, his father's log book has it detailed. Without receiving
an email from the gentleman the incident may well have passed unrecorded. F/O Heron and crew would later ditch a Halifax off
the Whitby coast (which I also detail on my "In the sea" section to my website and collide mid-air with another aircraft over France.