Until around 2010 Guy Jefferson's air accident research was on public display at the Yorkshire Air Museum, in this research was a mention of an aircraft crashing on Danby Rigg and it possibly being a Spitfire. They list no further information on the incident and it remains my only claim that such an incident occurred here. I guess that the aircraft made a good forced landing and it was recovered and repaired.
Pilot - Name unknown.
This incident could relate to that of Spitfire W3656 which landed "near Helmsley" in early 1942 but no evidence of this has been found. In his book the pilot
of W3656 states that he was some five miles south of Whitby when his engine began to fail, from there he was flying a direct route back to Scorton when he force
landed on high ground and close to the edge of a steep downward slope. The Form 1180 states this landing occurred on an army camp and although it is doubtful
that one was on Danby Rigg but this location is on the direct route the pilot would presumably have taken.
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