Wellington W5564 at Driffield airfield.

At 18.02hrs on 1st December 1941 this 405 Squadron aircraft landed at Driffield airfield as part of a flying exercise, unfortunately the brakes were ineffective on wet ground and it overshot, coming to rest in a wire netting fence on the perimeter of the airfield.

Pilot - Sgt Vernon Elton Sutherland RNZAF (NZ.402223).

Crew - Names unknown.


Vernon Sutherland was born in Wellington, New Zealand in November 1912 and when he joined the RNZAF in July 1940 he was working as a law clerk. He completed a Tour with 405 Squadron and was later posted to 16 OTU. As F/Lt he was sadly killed when Wellington Z1665 crashed on take off from Barford St.John on 31st December 1942. He was thirty years old and is buried at Middleton Stoney Churchyard, Oxfordshire.

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