Aircraft accidents in Yorkshire.

Wellington JA119 near Malton.

On 16th July 1943 this aircraft was being test flown, probably after repairs, to carry out a height test. The crew left East Moor airfield, to the north of York at around 11.15hrs and proceeded to climb to at least 12,000 feet in height. Some thirty four minutes into the flight the aircraft was over the Malton area and was seen by a Royal Observer Corps post to enter a left hand turn and the dive vertically for around 4000 feet before breaking up and exploding in mid air. The majority of the wreckage came to earth to the west of Malton and in a field close to the southern end of what is known locally as Jackie Lyons Plantation and all on board were killed. The larger peices of the aircraft landed close to where the A64 Malton by-pass was built some thirty years later, the by-pass may have infact been cut through the main crash site. Other bits are known to have fallen nearer Broughton, in fields near to the middle of the 'Plantation' at the Swinton Grange side. A heavy guard was placed on the wreckage until its removal some days later.

I grew up less than a mile from the crash site but never knew what had happened here until I began my research. In 2004 I was able to speak to two witnesses to this incident, Mr Ray Magson of Appleton le Street biked to the crash site as a young boy, whilst he did not actually witness the events his friend did and he recounted that it came to earth in "a million peices", the smaller peices seemly floated down to the ground. Sadly Mr Magson passed away some months after I contacted him and I did not get the chance to return to the site with him. He also suggested that the by-pass could have been cut through the main part of the crash site. Mr John Lund of Broughton also witnessed some of the wreckage and at least one body of an airman on the western side of the plantation but was too young to be allowed closer to the main crash site.

The crash investigation found the aircraft had broken up because of an excessive negative "G" force on the airframe, though no sign could be found in the wreckage to account for this. The pilots main oxygen cock was set in the "off" position when it crashed, though this was probably not a factor in the crash. The main conclusion was the pilot's harness was found to be un-done at the time of the crash, later types of Wellingtons were known to be nose heavy and in a steep dive with the pilot not strapped in this could have resulted in him falling forwards across the controls with little or no chance of recovering in a steep fast dive. Why the dive begun in the instance was not discovered.

Pilot - F/O James E Morris RCAF (J/14326), aged 28, of Chapleau, Ontario, Canada. Buried Ripon Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Navigator - F/Sgt Gordon B Nesbitt RCAF (R/123738), aged 26, of Shoal Lake, Manitoba, Canada. Buried Ripon Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Bomb Aimer - F/Sgt Joseph W Campbell RCAF (R/142015), aged 25, of Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. Buried Ripon Cemetery, Yorkshire.

WOp/AG - Sgt Harold V Baldwin RAF (1293595), aged 20, of Worthing, buried Durrington Cemetery, Worthing, Sussex.

Rear Gunner - F/Sgt Vernon F Rector RCAF (R/113223), aged 23, of Pickardville, Alberta, Canada. Buried Ripon Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Ground Crew/Passenger - LAC Thomas M Kearns RCAF (111354), aged 23, of Quyon, Quebec, Canada. Buried Ripon Cemetery, Yorkshire.

F/O Morris and his gravestone at Ripon Cemetery. His rank shown on the caption below his photograph is different to the one on his headstone. He was an experienced pilot, have 1766 hours total flying time to his name, with 140 of these being on the Wellington type.

The graves of the other four buried at Ripon Cemetery.

Joseph Campbell was born on 6th August 1917 in Yorkton. He enlisted on 7th 1941 in Regina and was driving trucks for the CP Express company at the time. His father was Irish and his mother was Scottish.

My thanks to (the now late) Mr Ray Magson and Mr John Lund for recounting their memories of this and other incidents around Ryedale.

Wellington JA119 was built to contract 92439/40 by Vickers Armstrong's Ltd at Squires Gate, Blackpool and delivered to MU for acceptance in June 1943 and then immediately onto 432 Squadron at Skipton on Swale. It was clearly written off after such an incident and Cat.E2/FA damage was recorded.