Hurricane V7168 near Whitby.

During the afternoon of 8th October 1941 this No.55 Operational Training Unit aircraft was being flown on a training flight when the pilot made a routine switch of the fuel tanks to supply fuel to the engine from the reserve tank. This caused the engine to fail in the Whitby area so, at 16.00hrs, he attempted to make a forced landing. He landed with the wheels up, as was the standard method of the day. The aircraft was not seriously damaged and was later repaired. The pilot survived without injury. The location of where this forced landing occurred is not known.

Hurricane V7168 was built to contract B85730/40 by Gloster Aircraft Ltd at Hucclecote. It was delivered to the RAF in January 1941 and after acceptance issued to 260 Squadron at Skitten. It was later transferred to 55 OTU at Usworth on an unknown date where, following the incident near Whitby on 8th October 1941, it had a Cat.B/FA damage assessment made against it. It was repaired, returned to service and later issued to 5 FTS at Ternhill in early 1942. 5 FTS became 5 (P)AFU at Ternhill on 1st April 1942 and the aircraft continued to serve until being shipped to the Middle East, but the date for the transfer is not known. It was later struck off charge on 28th August 1944.

Pilot - Sgt John Bernard Hurley RCAF (R/74321).

John "Jack" Hurley was born in 1921 was the son of Cornelius John McNeil and Anna Mae (nee Allison) Hurley and was born at Venkleek Hill, Ontario, Canada. His father ran a dairy farm. John enlisted into the RCAF in 1940, trained at No.10 SFTS in Dauphin, Canada between 4th May 1941 and 15th July 1941 and went overseas in August 1941. At the time of the forced landing at Whitby he had a total 150 hours flying time to his name with 19 hours on the Hurricane type. After completing his training he was later posted to fly in Libya and later in Ceylon and was credited with shooting down at least one Japanese aircraft while stationed there. He received a commission in late 1943. He survived the War and returned to Vanleek Hill. He died on 10th November 1995 in Ontario, Canada at the age of 74.

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