This 66 Squadron aircraft took off from Linton on Ouse airfield at 13.30hrs on 17th April 1951 with the pilot briefed to carry out an aerobatic training exercise followed by a ground controlled approach practice. Seven minutes later it had climbed to between three and four thousand feet and began to undertake the aerobatic part of the flight. At that height it made a roll and then approached the airfield in a fast shwllow dive. It passed the airfield boundary at around 1500 to 2000 feet above the ground, the pilot then put the aircraft into a climb and almost immediately the starboard wing broke off followed by the port wing. The aircraft then suffered complete structural failure and broke up over the airfield. The pilot had no time to bale out and was killed. An investigation found that the port undercarriage up-lock had failed, possibly due to the G-loading on it earlier in the flight or possibly due to earlier overstressing. When the pilot put the aircraft into a climb the leg then extended resulting in the airframe suffering aerodynamic instability.
Pilot - Sgt Matonia Bohdan Schnitzler RAF (788521). Aged 26. Buried Newton on Ouse Churchyard, Yorkshire.
Bohdan Schnitzler was a Jewish Czechoslovakian born on 17th June 1924 who served in the Czech Air Force during the Second World War in the UK. After the war he returned to his native country and had served in the Czech Air Force. He later escaped to the American Zone in Germany and worked for the Americans prior to returning to the UK and joining the RAF. In 1950 he became a British citizen and used the name "Danny Schnitzler". In 1949 he retrained at 203 AFS on propeller aircraft before converting to Meteors. He was then posted to 66 Squadron in February 1950. His parents had managed to escape to Israel. Sgt Schnitzler was buried locally to Linton on Ouse.