Hawker Demon K4526 (damaged near Catterick Camp?).
This one webpage may actually be two seperate incidents.
On 23rd May 1938 25 Squadron's pilots left Hawkinge, Kent in the squadron aeroplanes to fly for their annual armament training camp with No.2 A.T.S. at Aldergrove, Northern Ireland. To get to Aldergrove they were divided into three flights with all pilots ordered to fly to Catterick to refuel midway. Owing to low cloud and bad visibility two of the flights did not reach Catterick but force landed and they continued to Catterick when the weather improved. The squadron had twenty one pilots so in theory each flight had seven aeroplanes. Where fourteen aeroplanes made forced landings is unclear, owing to poor weather this may have been anywhere from the London area and Yorkshire, and probably on an RAF aerodrome for it to have not been recorded in newspapers. One of the aeroplanes appears to have been damaged during the forced landing that subsequently saw it written off after assessment. Hawker Demon K4526 was a 25 Squadron aeroplane around this era and it has previously been suggested by others to have crashed on the date of the squadron move to Aldergrove; 23rd May 1938 in the Catterick area. The rest of the 25 Squadron aeroplanes arrived at Aldergrove on 24th May 1938. They took part in Air Empire Day there on Saturday, 28th May 1938.
Pilot - Name unknown.
Two crew - Names unknown.
On Tuesday, 24th May 1938 thick fog was present around the Catterick area, owing to the fog an aeroplane narrowly missed the married quarters of the West Yorkshire Regiment at Catterick Camp and then landed on the "Jaffa" sports ground. One of the wings caught a hedge when it was taxying and it ran into a ditch in a field behind Hipswell Parish Church. The two occupants were uninjured. A three year old boy was playing near the hedge was narrowly missed being struck by the aeroplane's wing. I have not confirmed what the identity of this aeroplane was but I find it entirely plausable it was Demon K4526 and that the date previously quoted by others to have been a day earlier was wrong. Demon K3770 was also struck off charge on 25th May 1938 and could be the aircraft involved.