Beaufighter T3231 at Catfoss airfield.
In the morning and then the early afternoon of 7th March 1942 the trainee pilot of this No.2 (C)O.T.U. aircraft was given a flight in a Beaufighter and flew with an instructor, both these flight were dual instruction flights and contained a mix of single engine flying, overshooting landings and also series of circuits and landings flights. The second exercise was carried out in Beaufighter T3231. At 15.45hrs they landed at Catfoss and the instructor was satisfied that the trainee was ready to make his first solo flight in the Beaufighter, at 15.48hrs the trainee pilot was given clearance to take off and make a series of basic circuits of the airfield and to practice landing. He took off and successfully made a few flights around the general area of the aerodrome. At 16.00hrs the weather was beginning to change so flying control gave the order that all 2 (C)O.T.U. aircraft in the air return to Catfoss and land. The pilot of T3231 made three approaches to land but on all three approaches he had to fly another circuit because other aircraft had cut into his circuit and landed ahead of him. On the fourth approach he was down to around ten feet from the runway when another Beaufighter began to taxi back up the runway he was landing on so he was forced to overshoot again, he left the undercarriage down and applied power to the engines to climb away, the port engine was heard to mis-fire and while the aircraft climbed to around 400 feet it did not pick up speed. The aircraft was seen to then make a turn around the northern end of the runway and then fly slowly across the southern end of the airfield at around 400 feet, it then turned towards the north but then the port wing dropped and it spun into the ground. Upon impact it caught fire and was destroyed. The pilot was thrown out of the aircraft in the crash but had sadly died. It was thought that the port engine had failed and that the pilot did not have the experience know how to properly feather the propeller so left it windmilling. The undercarriage was also left down throughout the last circuit of the airfield and that it had not got enough flying speed flying on one engine while making a turn, the aircraft stalled and fell out of the sky at 16.25hrs.
Pilot - Sgt Martin Maher Hurley RCAF (R/64892), aged 21, of Barnaby River, New Brunswick, Canada. Buried Brandesburton Churchyard, Yorkshire.
Martin Hurley's gravestone at Brandesburton Churchyard. He was born on 27th February 1921 in Barnaby River, New Brunswick, Canada and was the son of Daniel and Clara (nee Maher) Hurley. The family lived in the small farming community of Semiwagon Ridge on the Miramichi River. He was a student at college when he enlisted for RCAF service on 14th August 1940 in Moncton, New Brunswick. He trained as a pilot in Canada, receiving his pilot's badge on 1st September 1941. On arrival in the UK in November 1941 he was immediately posted to 3 (C)O.T.U. and then on to 2 (C)O.T.U. on 1st January 1942.
