Martinet near Strensall.

At around 15.00hrs on the 4th of March 1944 this Martinet took off from Dalton airfield for a drogue towing flight, two hours into the flight and as the aircraft was returning to base from flying off the Yorkshire Coastline bad weather closed in. A snow storm caused the pilot to become lost and after flying for sometime he ran low on fuel and had no option but to force-land the aircraft. He did so just before 17.00hrs on Strensall golf course, close to the military ranges with injury to himself and slight damage to the aircraft. It was thought that he became lost as he was not familiar with this area of the countryside. It transpired the aircraft had not been fully filled up with fuel before take off, the fuel bowser did not have enough in it to complete the job.

The aircraft was built to Contract ACFT/1690 by Phillips & Powys at Reading and delivered to MU store in November 1943 and was later issued to 2695 BDT Flt. at Dalton when the unit formed on 15th February 1944. It suffered Cat. A/FA in this incident and was repaired on site and flown out. It continued to serve with 1695 BDT Flt. and moved with the unit to Dishforth on 23rd April 1945. The unit disbanded on 28th July 1945 when it was flown to MU store and remained there until being struck off charge as 'sold for scrap' on 10th December 1948.

Pilot - P/O G Basarrich RCAF (J/17784), ok.

Obs - Unknown, ok.