Martinet near Muston.

Martinet HN862.

On the 7th of July 1943 the pilot of this aircraft was carrying out target towing off the Yorkshire Coast when his fuel gauge showed the fuel was running low, he made landfall and crashed whilst making a forced landing near Muston, to the west of Filey at 11.45hrs. The flight lasted only 45 minutes. The investigation found that a faulty fuel gauge caused the pilot to make the assumption that the aircraft had run out of fuel. A faulty fuel gauge was blamed for the crash occuring. (One source claimed the aircraft suffered engine failure). The aircraft as such was written off in the crash although it was possible to salvage the engine.

The aircraft was built to contract ACFT/1690/C.23(c) by Phillips & Powys at Woodley and delivered to MU store in August 1942 before being issued to RAE at Farnborough later that year. On an unspecified date in 1943 it was transferred to A&AEE at Boscombe Down. After a further period of MU storage it was issued to Hutton Cranswick Station Flt. in mid 1943 but was quickly transferred to 1634 AAC Flt at Hutton Cranswick on 17th June 1943. It sustained Cat. E2/FA damage in the incident on 7th July 1943.

Pilot - Sgt W Nichol RAF, ok. It is thought that he survived the War.

The location of the crash site is not yet known.