On 8th December 1941 the pilot of this aircraft was carrying a training flight involving flying in cloud and was instructed to remain in a set area. The aircraft drifted away from the area the training was to be carried in and the pilot eventually found himself flying over unfamiliar and hilly country and became lost. With the weather getting worse he force landed the aircraft in a field near Uncat Row, Dockray at around 16.00hrs. The aircraft may first have clipped the side of Little Mell Fell. It received slight damage in this incident and was taken away by road and appears to have been repaired. The pilot spent the night at what was then called "Quinneys" and is now The Royal Hotel in Dockray.
Pilot - Sgt Martin Cornelius O'Leary RAFVR (1376431)
Martin O'Leary was born in London in 1921. He received his commission to P/O on probation on 21st February 1943 (159596), he was promoted to F/O on 21st August 1943 and F/Lt on 21st February 1945. Nothing more is currently known about his service.
Ade Harris found a witness to this Hurricane incident and was shown the site by local man Mr Keith Clark.
The RAF accident record card known as the Form AM1180 has been obtained for this incident but gives the identity of the Hurricane as being "V6198". V6198 cannot be correct as this registration was never allotted to a Hurricane, it was allotted to a Blenheim. The scribe of the AM1180 put a diagonal line between the digits "1" and "9" possibly to indicate they were recorded the wrong way round. The likely identity of this aircraft was V6918 which was a Hurricane and was with 59 OTU in December 1941.
Hurricane V6918 was built to contract 85730/40/23a by the Gloster Aircraft Co. Ltd. at Hucclecote and was awaiting collection in November 1940. After a very lengthy period of MU storage the aircraft was taken on charge around 14th May 1941 by 121 Squadron when the unit reformed at Kirton in Lindsey (having disbanded in November 1918 at the end of the First World War). 121 Squadron converted to Hurricane MkIIB's in July 1941 and shortly after the aircraft was passed on to 59 OTU at Crosby on Eden. The aircraft was initially assessed as sustaining Cat.A(c)/FA damage but this was later re-assessed and increased at Cat.B damage. It was taken away by road and repaired in works. The aircraft next appears on charge with 55 OTU at Annan in mid 1942 and remained with them until the unit disbanded on 26th January 1944. The aircraft was then placed into MU storage until it was deemed surplus to requirement and was struck off charge on 23rd May 1944. My thanks to Graham Sharpe for looking up the aircraft's history.