Chipmunk T.10 WK582 near Harewood House.

On Friday, 12th April 1957 the Leeds University Air Squadron were part way through their 3rd Easter Camp of the year at Yeadon airfield. During the camp air cadets undertook training flights in the local area. On this date the young pilot took off from Yeadon to carry out a flight that included practicing spins, stalls and steep turns. During the flight the pilot lost control, aircraft got into a spin which the student pilot was unable to recover and it crashed inside the parkland at Harewood House at just before 13.00hrs. It bounced several times across the ground before coming to rest under one of the large great oak trees stated to have been between two and three hundred yards from the house. Sadly the pilot was killed in the crash.

Pilot - Cadet Pilot David Ernest Young RAF (2608546), aged 20. Buried Camberwell New Cemetery, London.

The Emmerdale television soap opera is filmed in the grounds of Harewood House and in 1993 the producers filmed a mock aircraft disaster which became known as the "Beckindale Air Disaster". It viewed on 30th December 1993 and saw the "deaths" of four regular cast members as well as five other villagers who were not characters in the soap as well as all 138 people in the Niklovic 745X airliner. Believe it or not, I have received emails from people asking for information about the disaster and where it occurred. It is not real.

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