On the night of 9th / 10th October 1943 the crew of this 18 Operational Training Unit aircraft took off from Finningley airfield at 20.40hrs to undertake a night navigation exercise. During the flight the crew became totally lost. The aircraft gets multiple mentions within the No.6 Group Flying Control log for this night though is only recorded by it's callsign "Sycamore-L". Its crew first requested help in the way of a "Darky" transmission roughly due west of Middleton St.George at 01.47hrs stating that they were short of fuel. The crew were informed to fly east because Middleton St.George airfield was best suited to them landing there.

Confusion of exactly what and where any individual aircraft were in the air is born out by entries in the No.6 Group Flying Control log. Lights on various No.6 Group airfields were then lit up to assist the Wellington crew in landing. The aircraft did not land at Middleton St.George nor did it attempt to land at any of the other airfields providing assistance. It was initially believed that the navigator had got his compass directions mixed up. At 01.53hrs a Wellington made a transmission requesting a course to turn for Lindholme (which was probably LN583) and controllers at Linton on Ouse gave a baring of 150' to turn. At 02.15hrs it then appear to have been picked up on ground controller's screens and plotted it to have been somewhere over the Pennines heading toward Carlisle! At 02.18hrs rockets were fired at Linton to attempt to attract the crew and get them to alter their course (presumably the height at which they exploded could be seen for some distance at night). Further transmissions were made by Linton on Ouse to the Wellington but no responses were received. Here the confusion mounted, the ground units believed that after being given a course of 150' to turn had then made a reciprocal turn by accident. Other ground units and ROC units plotted the aircraft fly north west to Carlisle, then head north east to Drem, then head north east toward the east coast of Scotland by 02.45hrs.

At 03.35hrs No.6 Group Flying Control received information that two members of the missing Wellington "Sycamore -L" had landed in Doncaster and one had reported himself to Doncaster Police Station. This appears to have flumaxed ground controllers who believed their aircraft was somewhere off the east coast of Scotland at the time. It later transpired that the Wellington plotted flying toward Carlisle and to Scotland was actually an aircraft from Lossiemouth with the crew on a training flight. It later transpired that Wellington LN583 had flown back toward the general area of Doncaster but was unable to locate an airfield to land so, with the aircraft running out of fuel, the crew baled out and left the aircraft to crash into or close to the River Don / River Don Navigation, between Kirk Sandall and Barnby Dun at 02.30hrs.

Pilot - Sgt Robert Wemyss Sharp RAFVR (1347998).

4 further crew - Names unknown.