On the 25th of January 1949 the pilot of this aircraft took off from the 612 Squsdron airfield at Dyce to ferry it to Honiley so the aircraft could be transferred to 63 Group CF. He took off in the early afternoon and landed at Acklington to refuel, by this time the weather had made a turn for the worse but he took off again and headed south. The visabilty was too bad for him to have been allowed to take off from Acklington, but he was not stopped from doing so. When he approached the Dishforth area he was lost, flying on instruments he contacted Dishforth ATC for barings to land there, they attempted to give him barings but gave him incorrect information. After Dishforth ATC had vectored him across their airfield several times he still had not landed and his fuel was running low, Dishforth ATC ordered him to bale out. He landed near Thimbleby in a tree and his aircraft crashed between Nether Silton and Over Silton at 18.10hrs. The aircraft was written off whilst the pilot was uninjured. The pilot was taken in by Mrs Howden of North Farm, Thimbleby and given a cup of tea.

Blame on the crash was cast a number of ways, the pilot should not have taken off from Acklington because of the bad weather. Acklington's OC Flying was also to blame for allowing him to take off. Dishforths ATC was also blamed partly for giving incorrect barings.

Harvard KF666 was built as a 'lend lease' aircraft by Noorduyn Aviation at Cartierville, Montreal, Canada and delivered to the RAF in April 1945. After a period of storage it was issued to 612 Squadron which reformed at Dyce on 10th May 1946. It was transferred to 63 Grp. Com Flt. on 25th January 1949 but written off on that day whilst being flown to them, Cat E2/FA damage being sustained.

Pilot - PII Miroslaw Cempel RAF (703822) (or P/703899), of Poland. Uninjured.

Miroslaw Cempel had served in 315 Squadron from August 1944 until the end of the War. He had destroyed only one enemy aircraft, that of one Fw190 in February 1945. He was awarded the Polish medals, the CV and Bar. After the War he transferred to the RAF and after spending five years in RAF service he moved to Canada and again served in the RCAF in Canada for five years. He is still believed to be living in Montreal, Canada.