Wellington W5431 at Driffield airfield.
On 28th July 1941 this 104 Squadron aircraft was in the process of landing at Driffield airfield when the approach was poor. The pilot is recorded on the accident card as not making a decision to apply power to the engines and fly another circuit, the result was he made a hash of the landing. It probably landed too far down the runway and it overshot causing damage. The accident card states that this was the second aircraft this pilot had damaged in two days so was taken off flying duties at 104 Squadron (Wellington W5362 was damaged on 26th July 1941).
Pilot - P/O Edward Paul Byrom RAFVR (64306).
Crew - Names unknown.
P/O Byrom was posted in to 104 Squadron at Driffield on 14th July 1941 and posted out but to RAF Driffield on 26th August 1941 (probably to await posting elsewhere). He probably was the same person who later served with 295 Squadron flying SOE Stirlings during the Battle of Arnhem.
Wellington W5431 was built to contract B.71441/40 by Vickers Armstrong's Ltd. at Weybridge and was awaiting collection in February 1941. On 15th February 1941 it was flown to 51 M.U. at Lichfield but was found to have been damaged or unservicable because it was inspected there by 43 Group D.A. and deemed in need of repair. It was probably repaired on site and returned to 51 M.U. The date it was then taken on charge by 104 Squadron at Driffield is not given on it's AM Form 78. As a result of minor damage there on 28th July 1941 Cat.A(c)/FA damage and it was repaired on site. On 7th December 1941 the aircraft was at a Vickers facility for repair. On 8th March 1942 it was taken on charge by 158 Squadron at Driffield where it carried the code "NP-W". On 10th March 1942 it crashed on landing at Driffield on return from an operational flight to Essen. Five of the six crew were killed. Cat.E2/FB Burnt damage was the damage assessment and it was struck off charge the same day. The aircraft had clocked up just over 175 hours in the air in total.