On 13th December 1942 this 2 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit aircraft took off from Catfoss airfield at 10.20hrs so the crew could undertake a navigation exercise. An hour into the exercise the aircraft was seen to approach the coast flying towards land at Skipsea at reasonably low level and climb steeply to around 1000 feet as it crossed the coast. It appeared to be heading roughly south-west and back towards base at Catfoss with nothing unusual being observed by a second Beaufighter crew who were flying higher. Beaufighter EL279 was then seen to make a wide turn to port and to gradually loose height until it was 10 feet off a standing wheat field and to head towards a forced landing in a large stubble field. In between the two fields lay a slightly raised road bordered by hedges and along this road ran a line of telephone wires and poles. It was thought that in trying to avoid the telephone wires that the pilot had seen at the last moment he turned the aircraft sharply and lost control. The aircraft fell into the wheatfield and then bounced through the hedge onto the road where a fire completely destroyed all but the tail section of the aircraft. Because the aircraft's undercarriage was found to have been lowered just prior to the crash and it was presumed that the pilot was heading to the stubble field to force land there was an assumption made that a technical problem must have made the pilot opt to force land rather than fly the few miles back to Catfoss airfield. Because of the total destruction of the aircraft no technical fault could be found. I have yet to learn where this accident occurred other than it was in the region of Dunnington, north of Catfoss airfield. Looking at where the current telephone wires run I would guess that the accident occurred somewhere on the Billings Lane between Dunnington and Nunkeeling.
Pilot - Sgt Robert Inglis RAFVR (1552301), aged 21, of Dykehead. Buried Stane Cemetery, Lanarkshire.
Navigator - Sgt John Henry Pettifer RAFVR (1390274), aged 22, of Forty Hill, Enfield. Buried Lavender Hill Cemetery, Enfield, Middlesex.
Beaufighter EL279 was built to contract B.65570/40 by The Bristol Aeroplane Co. Ltd. at Old Mixon, Weston-super-Mare and was awaiting collection in August 1942. It was taken on charge by 2 (C)OTU shortly after and as a probable result of damage sustained on 14th November 1942 Cat.A/FA would have been the assessment but it is not listed in the aircaft's published history. For it to be destroyed a month later it must have been repaired on site. It crashed near Dunnington, East Yorkshire on 13th December 1942 with Cat.E2/FA damage recorded.
Robert Inglis' gravestone in Stane Cemetery.