On 2nd January 1937 the weather was very poor, visibility severely effected flying in North Yorkshire and across the North Yorkshire Moors with a thick belt of fog covered much of the area. A number of aircraft which were in transit between airfields made forced landings because of the weather. Other aircraft are believed to have been flying training flights out of Thornaby airfield over the North Yorkshire Moors, one aircraft crashed at the head of Rosedale (detailed on its own webpage) two others sustained no damage in landings at Duncombe Park, Helmsley and others made landings near Scarborough.
One aircraft is believed to have been in the air with the 9 F.T.S. pilot flying a solo cross country training flight, having taken off from Thornaby earlier in the day the pilot encountered the bad weather. He was attempting to force the aircraft on rugby pitches below Ampleforth College when the aircraft clipped a tree when coming into land and it crashed onto one of the school's rugby pitches. The incident was recorded in the York newspaper and it stated that it had damaged it's wing and the pilot escaped injury. The photograph shown above is believed to show the damaged Hart K5845 after its crash at Ampleforth but shows slightly more damage than was reported in the newspaper!
Pilot - LAC Alexander McKay McPhail RAF (563204).
Alexander McPhail received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation (51973) on 23rd March 1943. He was promoted to F/O on probation (war subs) on 23rd September 1943 and later to F/Lt (war subs) on 23rd March 1945. Post War he remained in the RAF until relinquishing his commission on 27th December 1957.
The photograph of the crashed aircraft was found on a website which shows photographs of Ampleforth in days gone by. It makes no reference to a date but probably relates to the mishap to Hart K5845 recorded above.
Hawker Hart(T) K5845 was built to contract 410420/35 by Vickers at Weybridge and was delivered to 9 F.T.S. at Thornaby on 8th April 1936. On 2nd January 1937 it crashed at Ampleforth. It was assessed and struck off charge on in March 1937 having flown 209.50 hours. It was probably loaded onto a lorry and driven back to Thornaby for assessment.