On Wednesday, 18th July 1951 this No.103 Flying Refresher School aircraft was being flown on a training flight that took the pilot over the Yorkshire Wolds. In misty and drizzly rain conditions the aircraft flew into the ground at 08.45hrs near Burton Fleming. It struck the ground close to a hedge bordering the Burton Fleming to Kilham road, bounced over the road and broke up in a cornfield beyond. The pilot was killed in the crash. A lady was cycling on the road at the time where it crashed and was so close that she received a cut leg by flying metal and was also struck by soil. She later stated that the aircraft went over her head and she was thrown from her bicycle. A man was also cycling in the opposite direction when the crash occurred twenty yards in front of him. He helped the injured lady get down to her mother's house at Burton Fleming. Exactly where this crash occurred is not stated in any of the accident documentation I have located. Newspaper reports all give it as occurring on the road between Burton Fleming and Kilham (which is nearly six miles in distance and does not help). Given the lady was cycling from Thwing to Burton Fleming the most logical location is on the hill just south-west of Burton Fleming and before the more minor road junction to Thwing.
Pilot - F/O Kenneth George Carlton RAF (186498). Aged 28. Buried Parish Church, Willesborough, Kent (O/335).
Civilian - Mrs Gertrude Mary Annie Dyson. Injured.
The injured civilian Mrs Dyson died locally in December 2007.
Kenneth Carlton was an experienced pilot and had served in the RAF as a fighter pilot between 1941 and 1946. He received a commission in 1944 and had mainly flown in India and Burma. After the war he left the RAF, joined the Reserve but was recalled in early 1951. He was undertaking refresher training at the time of his death. He had been working as a draughtsman for the Bristol Aircraft Company. He left a wife and three year old daughter.