On 22nd October 1942 the pupil pilot of this No.15 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit aircraft was making an approach to land at Acaster Malbis airfield when he was forced to attempt to fly an overshoot. He applied power to the engines to attempt to climb away but the engines spluttered. The aircraft sank to the ground and landed on the two main wheels at 08.30hrs. The pilot noticed he was heading toward a number of parked aircraft near the airfield boundary and attempted to lift the aircraft over them but struck Oxford X7262. EB985 was badly damaged and was not repaired. A member of ground crew was inside X7262 at the time and was slightly injured.
Pilot - Sgt Robert Hodgson Duckett RAFVR (1318397)
Oxford EB985 was built to contract B.67831/40 by The Percival Aircraft Company Ltd. at Luton and was awaiting collection in May 1942. After a short period of MU storage it was taken on charge by 15 (P)AFU on 13th July 1942 who were based at Leconfield. 15 (P)AFU used Acaster Malbis airfield as one of their satellite airfields. As a result of the crash there on 22nd October 1942 Cat.E2/FA damage was the result of the assessment and it was written off.