Dakota C.4 KN649 near Minskip.
On 27th August 1957 the very experienced pilot of this aircraft was being given a routine assessment by an even more experienced examiner, also on board was a fully qualified navigator. The aircraft was part of No.242 Operational Conversion Unit. It took off from Dishforth airfield and the flight went without trouble until around ninety minutes into the flight. While flying roughly in a southerly direction at between 2500 and 3000 feet a fire started in the starboard wheel bay just behind the starboard engine. The pilots were cleared to make an emergency landing at Dishforth but before they could do so an explosion in the wheel bay, caused by pressurised hydraulic fluid and a fuel pipe burning through. This resulted in the fire burning through the brackets which held the starboard engine in place and the engine broke away. Control having been lost and with a crash seemingly enevitable the navigator attempted to bale out of the aircraft but by the time he got clear there was no time for his parachute to open and he was sadly killed when he struck the ground in the Ox Close area to the west of Minskip just before lunch-time. The out of control aircraft then struck a tree south of Minskip and crashed into the field beyond, exploded and scattered wreckage over a wide area. The two pilots still on board would have stood no chance of survival and were killed instantly. The whole incident was witnessed by many service-families of those stationed at Dishforth, it was common for Dishforth based airmen to have families to live in the Boroughbridge area away from the base. A large number of people then made for the crash site and arriving fire engines struggled to get to the crash site as the roads were clogged. The pilot's wife was one of the people to see the aircraft crash from her home in Kirby Hill.
Pilot - F/Lt Graham Arthur John Wood DFC AFC RAF (150096), aged 34. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Assessor / Pilot - Master Pilot George Albert Marshall Ratcliffe RAF (1214071), aged 34. Buried Leeds General Cemetery (Woodhouse Cemetery), Yorkshire (3569).
Navigator - F/Lt Norman Franklyn Green RAF (199018), aged 34. Buried Highcliffe on Sea Churchyard, Hampshire.
Graham Wood was born on 23rd January 1923 in Romford, Essex, he was the son of Arthur Ernest Wood. He was educated at Wooton Court School near Canterbury and at the King's School Canterbury from September 1937 to December 1940 where he was in the Lattergate Waiting House and Meister Omers. He was awarded his colours for Second XV Rugby. He enlisted into the RAFVR in October 1941. He received a commission on 22nd January 1943 to the rank of P/O on probation, and awarded his Wings the following day. He rose to F/O on probation (war subs) on 23rd July 1943 and later in the year was confirmed in the rank of F/O. He rose to Acting F/Lt in March 1944 and was confirmed as F/Lt on 23rd January 1945. Having survived the War he remained in the Reserve until January 1947 when he left the Forces. On 7th December 1950 he re-joined the RAF and was granted a short service commission, for a period of eight years active service and then to serve for four years in the Reserve. He was granted his former rank of F/Lt. On 20th May 1957 he was transferred to a Direct Commission.
Upon enlisting to the Reserve in 1941 he was sent to the USA to train and on arrival back in the UK was posted to 6 AFU on 16th March 1943, then to 30 OTU on 17th August 1943
before his final training with 1667 HCU on 7th November 1943. He was posted operational with 576 Squadron on 2nd February 1944 and completed a Tour with 576 Squadron for which
he was awarded the DFC (Gazetted on 19th September 1944, although no citation has been found). He was then posted to be an instructor with 18 OTU but then appears to have wanted to return to operational flying and transferred to Transport Command. Having survived the War he joined Transport Command on 29th November 1945 and was seconded to the BOAC but this was short-lived as he left the RAFVR in January 1947. For his work in the early 1950s he was awarded the AFC (Gazetted on 1st January 1954).
Graham Wood with his baby son. In early 2010 I was fortunate enough to have been contacted by Mr Matt Wood, son of F/Lt Wood. He was kind enough to provide me with the photographs of his father, a copy of his service record and other documents used in this account. Around the same time and unbeknown to me fellow aviation historian Mr Ken Reast was tracking down the land owner of the crash site with the aim of securing a visit to locate the site.
Since uploading an earlier version of this webpage I have also been kindly contacted by Mr John Sheehan who's father Bernard Sheehan flew the aircraft a number of times with No.1315 Flight of the Commonwealth Air Force of Occupation in Japan in 1948. Mr Sheehan kindly supplied this unusual view of Dakota KN649 for inclusion on this webpage.
The 242 OCU record book mentions that on 14th August 1957 Dakota KN649 was loaned to this OCU by the AOC of No.18 Group for the purpose of converting replavement crews for No.1325 Flight.
After harvest in September 2010 Ken Reast, Albert Pritchard, Eric Barton and I were granted permission to locate the area of the crash by the landowner, Mr Cundall Snr of Minskip, who
himself had witnessed the events leading up to the crash. He was able to take us to within twenty feet of where we found a number of small pieces of the aircraft in the field in
which it first struck after hitting a tree on the edge of the field. At the time of the crash the local Ripon newspaper stated that the crash had made a deep crater in the field and that a trail of wreckage extended across two fields. With the land being important arable land the hole was back-filled and there is no visible trace in the field today. The remnants of a hedge was
searched and some larger pieces of the aircraft were found in the grass but had clearly been there for many years. Amongst these finds was a large lead balance weight and pieces of the aircraft's skinning along with smaller finds of piping, bakerlite and cast alluminium. We found no parts that contained stamped part numbers but with this being the only serious Dakota accident in Yorkshire none us have any experience of Dakota part number sequences or how Douglas marked their aircraft parts. One small piece was found with a pencilled number on it and another part found when cleaned was traced as that of an aircrew oxygen pipe bayonet connector fitting.
The assumed direction the aircraft went upon striking the tree and then the ground.
Part of one of the crews oxygen pipe and a complete one shown next to it.
A small piece with a hand written number on it.
Norman Green received a commission on 22nd May 1945 to P/O on probation (emergency) in the RAFVR (General Duties Branch) rising to F/O (war subs) on 22nd November 1945. On 3rd January 1949 he transferred to the Secretarial Branch and reverted to P/O but he transferred back to the General Duties Branch on 4th January 1952. He was promoted to F/O on 27th June 1949 and F/Lt on 26th May 1955. The 242 O.C.U. record book lists him as being attached from RAF Hendon at the time of his death.
George Ratcliffe, despite not being commissioned, was a very experienced pilot with over 5,000 hours flying time to his name. He was born in Leeds, Yorkshire on 22nd December 1922. After pilot training he was posted to North Africa, Burma during the War, then to Palestine after the war and also took part in the Berlin Airlift. He was buried in Leeds next to his mother but the cemetery was cleared some years ago and is now a garden of rest next to Leeds University and his burial location is now un-marked. I thank his son Mr Don Ratcliffe for contacting me and supplying these extra details.
