Mosquito TA525 near Castle Bolton.
On 14th February 1946 this Dutch pilot was tasked with flying a solo training flight while undertaking a training course at No.13 Operational Training Unit. During the flight and after entering into a band of poor weather over the Yorkshire Dales he lost control and crashed. Air Traffic Control had instructed the pilot to climb but he failed to do this in time and the aircraft crashed into high ground near Castle Bolton killing him instantly. The aircraft was destroyed in the crash. It was thought that the pilot had not understood the instructions given to him but the ground controller was held partly to blame for directing the pilot over high ground in bad weather.
Pilot - Sgt Gebines La Hei RAFVR (906922) (attached from Dutch Navy), aged 27, of Assen, The Netherlands. Buried Mill Hill (Paddington) Cemetery, London.
Gebines La Hei was born on 31st January 1918 in Assen, Holland and during the first half of the War served in the Dutch Merchant Navy.
He enlisted into the Air Force on 28th March 1944 and begun training as a pilot at 7 EFTS in May 1944. After a series of postings to and from 51 Group Pool and other training units the War in Europe had come to and end. He was then posted to 13 OTU on 24th July 1945 and then to 320 (Dutch) Squadron on 20th September 1945, he was posted
back to 13 OTU on an unknown date and was killed serving with this unit. At the time of his death had had logged a total of solo flying 135 hours with 29 hours on the
Mosquito type. I am grateful to Mr Laurens Van Veen, whose uncle was killed in this accident for contacting me during the early stages of this website's development and for the copies of photographs and service records he was kind enough to provide me with.
My wife and I visited the crash site in March 2005.
One of the aircraft's Merlin engines when the site was visited by Ken Reast in the mid 1980s. Either this or the remains of the other engine are now believed
to be in the DeHavilland museum. Fragmented parts of the Merlin engines are still at the site but as can be seen in the photograph below, they are small (found in 2009).
Some of the aircraft wreckage appears to have been dumped into a pothole near where it crashed.
Mosquito TA525 had a brief service history. It was built by De Havilland at Hatfield and was delivered as new to 19 MU on 7th June 1945. On 21st September 1945 it was taken on charge by 13 OTU. As a result of the crash on 14th February 1946 Cat.E/FA damage was the damage assessment and the aircraft was struck off charge on 28th February 1946.
