During the night of 12th / 13th October 1942 the pilot of this No.15 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit aircraft was detailed to undertake a night training flight and took off from Leconfield at xx.10hrs. While the aircraft was in the air the weather suddenly deteriorated which, it was assumed, had caused the pilot to become disorientated and he lost track of where he was. Radio contact with the aircraft was also lost. The weather then improved thirty minutes later. The aircraft was next seen approaching Hull from the Humber and it then began circling the city at around 2,000 feet. At 00.33hrs the aircraft struck a balloon barrage cable positioned over Hull and sited near the cross roads of South County Road. The aircraft then crashed alongside Laburnum Avenue and the pilot was sadly killed.
Oxford V3882 was built to contract B.55347/39 by Standard Motors Ltd. at Canley and was awaiting collection in March 1941. After a lengthy period of MU storage it was taken on charge some fourteen months later by 15 (P)AFU Leconfield on 27th May 1942. As a result of the crash in Hull on 13th October 1942 the aircraft was destroyed and Cat.E2/FA damage being recorded.
Pilot - Sgt Victor Harold Sweeting RAFVR (1386117), aged 26. Buried Baddesley Clinton Churchyard, Warwickshire.
Victor Sweeting was born on 20th January 1916 at Walthamstow, London and was the son of George William and Maud Ethel Sweeting. He married in Warwickshire in September 1940 to Alison Heath (who lived in Edgbaston, Birmingham). He enlisted for RAF service on 10th March 1941.