On Monday, 28th June 1954 this 228 Operational Conversion Unit aircraft took off from Leeming at 11.48hrs with the pilot undertaking his first solo flight with the unit. He was due to undertake a flight at 20,000 feet but the canopy was not properly secured and it blew off shortly after taking off. Seven minutes later the pilot attempted to bale out but by then he was too low. The parachute also caught on the tail and was torn so then did not deploy properly. The pilot was seriously injured as a result of his heavy landing, he received attention from a brother from the St.John of God Hospital at Scorton before an ambulance arrived but sadly died of his injuries at Northallerton Friarage Hospital. The aircraft then crashed two fields away from where the pilot landed near Clarence House Farm, Scorton at 10.55hrs.
Pilot - P/O David Bartholomew Brown RAF (4106247), aged 19. Cremated Coventry Crematorium.
David Brown was born in Blackpool but moved to Rugby with his family when he was a child. He attended the Lawrence Sheriff School and was a member of the 14th Rugby (St.Oswald's) Scout Group. He left school at seventeen and enlisted into the RAF, training as a pilot in Canada. I thank his nephew for contacting me during the early stages of this website.
Historians Ken Reast, Albert Pritchard and Eric Barton located small fragments at the crash site with permission from the landowner in February 2000 to confirm the location.