Spitfire (P8162?) at Catterick airfield.
On the 14th July 1941 this 41 Squadron aircraft landed at Catterick but hit the edge of the runway, the aircraft bounced and slid sideways across the runway
causing one of the main undercarriage legs to collapse. The runway was inspected and it was found that the edge of it was exposed and the concrete
was protruding due to a subsidence of earth. The accident record card (AM1180) for this incident is unclear but appears to show the identity of the
aircraft as P8162 though the incident is not in it's history published in the Air Britain books detailing service histories.
Pilot - Sgt Leonard Hunt RAFVR (1164098), of Handsworth, Birmingham. Uninjured.
Sgt Hunt was killed on 16th September 1941, ten aircraft were undertaking a training flight when Hunt's aircraft, Spitfire W3374, entered a dive from
which he was unable to recover from before a wing broke off and the aircraft crashed onto the beach at Littlehampton. His body was returned home and buried
in Handsworth Cemetery. He was twenty seven years old.
If the identity of the aircraft was Spitfire P8162 then it was built to contract B.981687 by Vickers Armstrong's Ltd. at Castle Bromwich and was
delivered to 37 MU at Burtonwood on 10th March 1941. On 5th June 1941 it was taken on charge by 41 Squadron at Catterick and probably sustained
Cat.A/FA damage in the incident at Catterick on 14th July 1941. An attempt at repairing it on site was probably started but it was later declared
as Cat.B and transported by road to 1 CRU at Cowley on 14th September 1941 for repair in works. On completion of the repair it was taken on
charge by the newly formed 416 Squadron RCAF at Peterhead on 31st December 1941. A month later on 31st January 1942 it suffered an unspecified
Cat.B/FB incident on an operational flight; 416 Squadron were commencing convoy patrols at around this time. It was repaired on site and returned
to the unit. On 23rd April 1942 it was transferred to 61 OTU at Rednal and on 10th October 1942 it was transferred to CGS at Sutton Bridge. On
24th October 1942 it suffered an unspecified Cat.A(c)/FA incident (it is likely that the aircraft was repaired on site and returned to unit but
no details exist). Nothing more of the aircraft is then known until it was struck off charge on 2nd November 1944.