Wellington X3364 at Dishforth airfield.
At 17.58hrs on 27th February 1943 the crew of this 426 Squadron aircraft were in the process of taking off from Dishforth to undertake a mine laying operational flight when the pilot noticed the air speed indicator on the aircraft was not registering. He abandoned the take off but the aircraft was travelling too fast to stop on the runway, it over-ran the airfield boundary, across a road and ran into Nissen huts across the airfield boundary on the Great North Road (A1) side of the airfield. The crew appear to have escaped injury but the aircraft was badly damaged. An investigation concluded that the fitting of the airspeed indicator had been carried out incorrectly leading to it not working.
Pilot - Sgt Leslie Gordon Sutherland RCAF (R/99732).
Crew - Names unknown.
Leslie Sutherland was born on 26th November 1918, he was the son of M. Gordon Sutherland and Maud Sutherland and foster-son of Arthur Turnbull, of Corunna, Ontario, Canada. He was still flying with 426 Squadron and killed on the night of 23rd / 24th May 1943 flying Ops to Dortmund in Wellington HE281 when his aircraft was shot down over Holland with the loss of his then crew. He was twenty four years old and is buried in Haaksbergen General Cemetery, Holland. Some or all of his then crew may have been with him when the incident at Dishforth occurred.
Wellington X3364 was built to contract B.92439/40 by Vickers Armstrong's Ltd. at Squires Gate. It was was received by 12 MU on 28th September 1942 and initially placed in MU storage. The aircraft was taken on charge by 115 Squadron at Marham on 3rd May 1942. It was involved in a battle damage incident on 20th May 1942 which was initially assessed as Cat.Ac/FB damage but was then re-assessed as Cat.B. It was taken away and repaired at the Vickers factory at Weybridge. Once repaired it passed to 51 MU on 9th October 1942 and was then taken on charge by 425 Squadron at Dishforth on 18th November 1942. It then appears to have been slightly damaged in a flying accident on 9th December 1942 with Cat.Ac/FA damage being the damage assessment. No details of how this occurred are known. It was repaired on site by a team from Vickers at Weybridge. Once repaired it was transferred to 426 Squadron at Dishforth on 30th January 1943. As a result of the crash on 27th February 1943 the damage was assessed as being Cat.E and it was written off. It was struck off charge on 5th March 1943.