On 17th February 1943 this No.15 Elementary Flying Training School aircraft took off from Kingstown (Carlisle) at 16.00hrs to undertake a dual control training exercise that would have seen they fly a rough triangular route to Lockerbie, then to Maryport then back to Kingstown. The weather when they took off from not perfect but deemed still suitable for flying. They reached Lockerbie at 16.28hrs then turned toward Maryport but by the time they came south the wind direction had changed slightly which saw them drift east of their intended route. At 16.42hrs the pupil noted that they were over Aspatria and they then flew into dense and turbulent cloud conditions. In view of the flying conditions they then opted to turn around and head back to base. A short time later the instructor decended with a view to getting below the cloud but in doing so the aircraft flew into the mountain of Binsey at around 17.00hrs. The instructor was killed in the crash but the pupil survived and was found by a passing lorry driver by the side of the A591 road. He was initially taken to a cottage hospital at Cockermouth and would recover from his injuries. The body of the instructor was taken down to Low Garth by local people prior to the authorities collecting him.

Instructor Pilot - F/O Alfred Ernest Woodley RAFVR (109066), aged 30. Buried Dalston Road Cemetery, Carlisle, Cumbria (11/P/48).

Trainee Pilot - P/O Douglas Keith Dovey RAFVR (135664). Injured.

Binsey as seen from the Skiddaw area (above) and the area of the crash (below).

Alfred Woodley was the son of Ernest and Eunice Woodley and the husband of Betty Soppitt marrying in Deptford in 1938, she was living in Blandford, Dorset when the CWGC compiled their records. He received a commission in the RAFVR to the rank of P/O on probation on 12th July 1941 and was promoted to F/O on 12th July 1942.