Wellington R1151 near Bircotes. Possibly just outside Yorkshire.
On 25th May 1942 this 25 O.T.U. aircraft took off from Bircotes at 14.41hrs for a dual instruction training flight. Ten minutes later it returned to Bircotes and attempting to land downwind by mistake. The landing was aborted and while banking into the strong wind to attempt to go round the aircraft lost height and flew into trees after control was lost. It seems likely that the survivor was the trainee pilot given the wireless operator and a member of ground crew were killed along with the instructor. Bircotes was a grass airfield used by parent airfield Finningley. Bircotes village is actually just inside Nottinghamshire but the airfield was in Yorkshire.
All of the deaths that resulted from this incident were registered in Nottinghamshire suggesting that the deaths were indeed not in Yorkshire. As a result this incident will probably get deleted from this "Yorkshire" website in due course but I leave it here as the family of LAC Emms were interested to learn the fate of their relation as recently as June 2012.
Wellington R1151 was built to contract 992424/39 by Vickers Armstrong's Ltd, at Hawarden, Chester and was awaiting collection in September 1940. After a lengthy period of MU storage it was taken on charge by No.6 School of Technical Training on 27th March 1941. The date it was then transferred to 25 O.T.U. at Finningley is not listed on the aircraft's AM Form 78. As a result of the flying accident on 25th May 1942 the damage assessment was Cat.E/FA but it cannot have been a total write off as it was converted to ground instructional airfield 3239M. It was eventually struck off charge on 11th April 1945.
(Instructor?) Pilot - F/O Stanley le-Vesconte Wood DFC RAFVR (89608), aged 20, of Birkenhead. Buried Woodchurch Churchyard, Birkenhead, Cheshire.
Wireless Operator - F/Sgt Ronald Alfred Coles RAFVR (751410), aged 23, of Earlsdon, Coventry. Buried Stivichall Churchyard, Warwickshire.
Passenger - LAC Graham Langley Emms RAFVR (930367), aged 21, of King's Lynn. Buried King's Lynn Cemetery, Norfolk.
(Trainee?) Pilot - Sgt R G Livingstone RAFVR (946003). Injured.
Through searching for his family on the internet it appears that his family were forced to move to England from Jersey to flee the German occupation. His father returned home to Ave Maria, La Pouquelaye, Jersey after the War and died in the 1950s.
Stanley le-Vesconte Wood received a commission on 4th January 1941 to P/O on probation (with seniority back dated to 19th December 1940). He rose to F/O (war subs) exactly a year later. He was posted to 49 Squadron in May 1941 to January 1941 and was awarded the DFC for service with them for completing a Tour, this award appeared in the London Gazette on 13th March 1942 "for gallantry and devotion to duty in the execution of air operations." 49 Squadron flew Hampdens during this period. At the time of the accident at Bircotes it seems likely that F/O Wood was flying as an instructor or perhaps converting to pilot the Wellington type.
Graham Emms was born on 22nd July 1920 in King's Lynn and enlisted on 14th June 1940. Information found on the internet states that he died close to the Tickhill to Bawtry Road, Harworth, Workshop Rural District.